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Thứ Tư, 2 tháng 11, 2011

David Beckham 'will know when to quit' football

David Beckham says he can still perform at the highest level and that he will know when it is time to quit football.

Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder Beckham, 36, also restated his aim to represent the Great Britain football team at the 2012 Olympics.

"People have been saying [I am too old] for the last 10 or 15 years and I've still continued to play for my country," he told BBC Sport.

"Right now, I feel fit and still love playing, so I'm not finishing yet."

Beckham said he was "flattered" by reports linking him to top European clubs but that he was focused on helping LA Galaxy attain success in Major League Soccer.

Paris Saint-Germain are said to be keen to sign Beckham, who told BBC sport editor David Bond that "certain clubs in the Premiership" have also shown an interest.

Archive - Beckham's 1998 World Cup

But Beckham, whose five-year deal with Galaxy runs out in the next few weeks, said: "At 36-years-old, to still have that interest in me is an honour, I'm very flattered.

"But right now I'm a Galaxy player and I will continue to be a Galaxy player until we win the league - the MLS Cup - and then we'll see. I haven't even sat down and thought about what my options are yet.

"It's always difficult making that decision about stopping but I don't think I'm going to have that problem. I think I'm going to know when to finish, but that's not yet.

"As long as I feel I can play at a high level, then I'll continue. Once that changes, I'm going to have to accept I need to stop."

Analysis

David Bond,
BBC sports editor

It is remarkable that despite his age and the effects of last year's Achilles injury, the level of interest in Beckham seems undiminshed

Germany top for foreign students

Is Germany better at teaching university courses in English than universities in English-speaking countries?

Germany has been named as the most supportive country for overseas students, in an international league table.

Among the attractions for international students is the increasing availability in Germany of courses taught entirely in English, so much so that students can complete degrees without ever having to speak German.

In the international zones of these classes, students from Germany, the United States and China participate in seminars conducted by German professors speaking in English.

View from abroad

David Ravensbergen, a Canadian at the Freie Universitat Berlin, says these multiple layers of internationalism can puzzle other students.

"They say: 'Let's get this straight. You're an English speaker from Canada, and you've come to Germany to study in English. And to study about North America. What's gotten into your head?'"

But Herbert Grieshop, director of the university's Centre for International Co-operation, says that languages should not be a barrier to such globalisation and that international English might be more useful than some regional varieties.

David Ravensbergen says the open access to German universities is a "well-kept secret"

"I wonder whether a Chinese student can understand us better than someone with a Yorkshire accent or some strange American accent," he says in flawless English.

The survey from the British Council which has placed Germany in first place is called the Global Gauge.

It comes ahead of a major British Council conference in Hong Kong examining university globalisation, called Going Global, which begins on Thursday.

The league table ranks university systems on measures such as openness, degree quality, how widely degrees are recognised, support for overseas students and how much students were encouraged to spend time abroad.

No tuition fees

Freie Universitat Berlin, a top-ranking research university, has been part of this internationalisation project. It anticipates that a third of its students could be from overseas in the future.

"It's a well kept secret, that students are able to come here and there are very few barriers," says David Ravensbergen.

He is taking part in a seminar at the university's John F Kennedy Institute. It's conducted entirely in English - with language skills at a level where it is hard to distinguish between those who have English as a first and second language.

German students are encouraged to go abroad: Julia Sunaric has studied in Spain, the UK and China

He is also impressed by the way overseas students in Germany do not pay higher fees. In other countries, he says it can be a case of "internationalism for those who can afford it".

"One of the strongest motivators is finance. To go to university in Canada means taking on debt. It's essentially free to do it in Germany. It's incredibly appealing not to have to mortgage your future."

Sophie Perl, a student from the United States, also echoes the appeal of being able to study abroad, while paying less than at home.

"I think the biggest factor is financial. In the US a graduate programme would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, in Germany it doesn't cost anything. And it doesn't cost more for foreign students than it does for German students."

Dr Christian Lammert, who is leading the seminar, delivers what he says is now a "completely international" type of course. Even the noticeboards in the corridor have information in English.

OVERSEAS FRIENDLY

1. Germany
2. Australia
3. UK
4. China
5. Malaysia
6. US
7. Japan
8. Russia
9. Nigeria
10. Brazil
11. India

Source: British Council

Outside the window it's a cold afternoon in a leafy suburb of Berlin. The nearby tube station has a folksy thatched roof and there's a wurst seller nearby.

But inside the classroom it could be anywhere in the academic world, with English as the lingua franca and a multicultural group appropriately enough discussing multiculturalism.

The idea of learning in another language, in your own country, does not seem to be a problem for German students. "It's very common to learn in a language other than your mother tongue, so it's not anything special or weird," says Lena Verbeek.

There is a generational divide though. "For my parents it was something very new. Learning in an additional language was something they never dreamt of doing, as they studied only in Germany. It's becoming more and more international."

Outward looking

The idea of internationalism permeates the university. It was set up in 1948 as a university for the western zone of the divided city and has always promoted the idea of links with the rest of the world. The university's showcase library was designed by Sir Norman Foster.

Herbert Grieshop says international English might be easier to understand than a Yorkshire accent

Mr Grieshop is speaking in a classic 1950s building, full of light and post-war optimism, and the open-arms policy towards overseas students owes much to a cultural faith in internationalism.

"It's good will, being a good neighbour. It's basic to our culture and our economy. We are an outward looking country."

"We think that global problems need global co-operation for research. And for our students it brings the sensibilities and the competencies they need in a globalised world market."

The university has not opened overseas campuses, but instead it develops partnerships through a network of overseas offices in countries including China, the US, Russia and India.

Pat Killingley, the British Council's director of higher education, says that an increase in international partnerships between universities has become a global trend. These partnerships can then become pathways, establishing a route for exchanges between students and staff.

For the UK's universities, she says overseas students are becoming particularly important for postgraduate courses.

"It's a hugely important trend, bringing students to the UK and supporting the research base. It's internationalising the whole system, she says.

It's a picture in which globalisation will "intensify" she says, expecting both more competition and collaboration between university systems.

India: The next university superpower?

By Yojana Sharma Asia Editor, University World News

Students queue for application forms for Delhi University - an institution with 300,000 students

Knowledge economy

India has ambitious plans to increase graduate numbers in a way which would give it the size and status of an education superpower.

The figures are staggering. India's government speaks of increasing the proportion of young people going to university from 12% at present to 30% by 2025 - approaching the levels of many Western countries.

It wants to expand its university system to meet the aspirations of a growing middle class, to widen access, and become a "knowledge powerhouse".

It will mean increasing the country's student population from 12 million to over 30 million, and will put it on course to becoming one of the world's largest education systems.

"We will very likely be number two if not number one in terms of numbers," says Pawan Agarwal, a former civil servant and author of Indian Higher Education: Envisioning the Future.

With US enrolment stagnating and the UK cutting back on university places, "Indian graduates will become more visible globally, particularly in technical and engineering fields", Mr Agarwal predicts.

'Great leap forward'

KN Panikkar, vice chairman of the Kerala State Higher Education Council, describes India's higher education spending as undergoing a "great leap forward".

The amount of money in the central budget for higher education in the current five year plan (2010-2015) is nine times the amount of the previous five years.

But there is a steep hill to climb. India's National Knowledge Commission estimated the country needs 1,500 universities compared to around 370 now.

Hundreds of new institutions are being set up, including large new public universities in each state. The number of prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Management (IIMs) are being expanded from seven to 15.

India's private university sector is also growing rapidly, particularly in professional education in information technology, engineering, medicine and management where there is huge demand from the burgeoning middle classes.

But that will not be enough. To bridge the gap the government last year tabled legislation to invite foreign universities to set up branch campuses. The Foreign Providers Bill is currently making its way through parliament.

'Fever pitch'

Last year there were reports of up to 50 foreign universities being interested in setting up in India. The hype reached fever pitch in November during the visit of US President Barack Obama and a large group of US university presidents.

“Start Quote

If only 1% of the population can afford the fees, then it will be very serious for the country in terms of equity”

KN Panikkar Kerala State Higher Education Council

UK Higher Education minister David Willetts and the largest-ever Canadian delegation were also in the country, enthusiastically talking of university partnerships.

Some foreign universities are already in place. The UK's Leeds Metropolitan University provides management degrees on a 36-acre campus in Bhopal in central India.

Lancaster University runs courses at the GD Goenka World Institute - a 69-acre site near Delhi. Both institutions opened in 2009 as joint ventures with Indian non-profit partners under existing laws.

Some bring faculty and staff from their home institutions, but even the most prestigious public institutions, including the IITs, are struggling to fill top faculty positions and teacher student ratios are deteriorating.

Foreign institutions able to lure staff with higher salaries will make the situation worse, detractors of the Foreign Providers Bill point out.

Mr Panikkar says foreign and private institutions are not the answer. "If only 1% of the population can afford the fees, then it will be very serious for the country in terms of equity."

Fair access

Access is an important issue for the government which came to power because the benefits of India's rapid economic growth were seen to have bypassed the country's poor.

Students in the chemistry department at the private Amity University in Noida

While more than 95% of children now attend primary school, just 40% attend secondary school, according to the World Bank. That in itself will limit growth in university enrolment.

The World Bank has said India's economic success cannot be sustained without major investment in education, including higher education, with public spending on the sector still lagging behind countries like China and Brazil.

But the gold-rush mentality has dissipated. The Foreign Providers Bill is stuck in a parliament that has done little business since a telecommunications corruption scandal erupted last year.

"There has been some toning down of expectations of foreign universities," said Rahul Choudaha, associate director, World Education Services in New York and a close observer of the sector.

"The public university system in many countries is in crisis, facing serious budget cuts. They are not ready to invest money in partnerships."

Some "gold diggers" were dissuaded as the government made it clear for-profit companies would not be allowed to exploit India's thirst for higher education.

Unlike Singapore and China, the Indian government does not want to appear to favour foreign institutions by providing public money or large land grants.

Duke University, based in North Carolina in the US, has been interested in India for some time.

"We want to develop Duke as a globally-networked university. The best researchers are those connected globally," says Gregory Jones, Duke's vice president and vice provost for global strategy.

'Eastward shift'

But its Shanghai campus will be in operation first. "They [Shanghai] were willing to donate and build the first phase at their expense so it was a financially-viable proposition for us," said Mr Jones.

"It is not yet clear how we will develop our presence in India. It is a complicated reform bill."

An eastward shift in the geography of science and technology is a major draw as international companies set up research and development sites in India and China.

"We are tapping into the research potential of these Asian countries," says Professor Pradeep Khosla, dean of Carnegie Mellon University's College of Engineering.

The prestigious US institution has teamed up with India's Shiv Nadar Foundation to open an engineering college in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

But these joint ventures are not fully-fledged overseas campuses. "Only a handful of overseas universities are thinking about that seriously," said Mr Agarwal. "But even if they go ahead it will not be enough. They will only increase capacity for hundreds of Indian students, not millions."

That means huge public spending on colleges outside the cities, says Mr Panikkar who has written extensively on social justice in higher education. He believes the enrolment targets are too ambitious given limited public resources and bottlenecks in staffing and infrastructure.

"What is achievable is adding perhaps 10 million students to existing capacity in the next five to seven years," he says.

That would still be a major achievement, but some way from making India an education superpower.

UK school tech show moves to Abu Dhabi

and consumers in the education industry, and there is a regularity and a quality to that debate in the UK. It has influenced more than the UK, it has influenced everybody globally.

"And when you are in a region like this where education is emerging and strengthening, just as the economies are emerging and strengthening, you need to put people together in professional associations, in meetings so they get to know each other and they get to adapt their solutions to their problems.

"So this is an essential conversation and I most certainly take part in it avidly because it feels like BETT felt like when it started."

The event was set up at the request of the Abu Dhabi Education Council. "They are extremely keen to reform and improve their school system out here," says Joe Willcox of show organisers EMAP Connect.

"And it's really a challenge for them to give educators working in the public schools a meaningful opportunity to use, experience and play with the technology."

He talks of the business interest in the "enormous potential of the region" for education providers.

There have already been reports of a boom in private education in the UAE, attracting overseas investors.

Export markets

This export drive is even more important for firms specialising in education technology and design when the UK has seen the cancellation of home-grown projects such as Building Schools for the Future.

“Start Quote

Schools and teachers in the Middle East, Latin America and Asia are hungry for change and technological innovation. In fact many are further ahead in this than some of the former 'top nations'”

Chris Merrick Promethean

However, the importance of events like BETT Middle East goes further than a simple match of timely local needs to a simultaneous decline in European and US markets.

It also signifies the globalisation of learning and the organisations and companies which serve it. Promethean was once seen as a a relatively small UK supplier of interactive whiteboards. While observers were looking elsewhere it suddenly went global and now has offices worldwide, including in the Middle East and in Atlanta USA.

"We are not living in the old world of the UK and other elite Western economies versus the rest of the world any more," explains Promethean's head of international marketing, Chris Merrick.

"We are moving to a flat global society and economy. So it's not a case of let's do everything first in the UK and everyone can catch up, as once was the case. We have recognised that new ideas, innovation, and new methods of best practice are not just starting in the West any more; they are starting all over the world.

"The world is moving ahead in parallel, and BETT Middle East is evidence of that - schools and teachers in the Middle East, plus Latin America and Asia, are hungry for change and technological innovation. In fact many are further ahead in this than some of the former 'top nations'.

"That's why we have to be at events like BETT Middle East. As a global player we have to be part of that conversation."

Merlin John is an education technology writer and editor of Merlin John Online

Just a Few Drinks a Week Boosts Breast Cancer Risk

A new study should give women pause before filling their wine glass. Researchers found that women who regularly drink a small amount of alcohol — less than a drink a day — may increase their lifetime risk of breast cancer.

Dr. Wendy Chen, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and her colleagues report this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) that women who consumed as little as three to six drinks a week over several decades were 15% more likely to develop breast cancer than women who didn't drink at all. Heavier drinking, defined as at least two drinks per day, was associated with a 51% increase in risk.

The effect was cumulative, with the risk of breast cancer rising 10% with each 10 g (about a third of an ounce) increase in alcohol consumption per day. While that may sound worrisome, it's worth remembering that on average the overall risk of breast cancer remains modest. As Dr. Steven A. Narod of the Women's College Research Institute in Toronto noted in an accompanying editorial in JAMA, based on the study's data women who routinely have a drink a day could expect their 10-year risk of breast risk to increase from 2.8% to 3.5%. For women who have two drinks a day, that risk would rise from 2.8% to 4.1%.

The new findings add to an increasing body of evidence that has associated drinking with breast cancer. But while previous studies have shown that heavy drinking can boost the risk, Chen's study also linked cancer to small amounts of alcohol — the same level of consumption that is commonly suggested to reduce the risk of heart disease. Having a few drinks a week could lower the risk of heart disease by 25% to 40%; for the average 50-year-old woman, the risk of heart disease is 39%. Whether the risks of breast cancer outweigh the benefits for the heart, says Chen, is a decision that only individual women, based on their individual risk factors, should make with help from their doctor.

MORE: Cheers! More Evidence That Moderate Drinking Is Good for Your Health

The current research involved more than 105,000 women enrolled in the long-running Nurses' Health Study. The participants were asked about their alcohol consumption every four years between 1980 and 2008. While other analyses have asked women only about their recent drinking habits — in the past month or past year, for example — Chen's decades-long investigation allowed her team to track drinking patterns over time, offering stronger data on the cumulative effect of alcohol on breast cancer.

"We were really looking at average intake over a long period of time," says Chen. "That gave us the most consistent measure of alcohol exposure, rather than just focusing on what the women did in their 40s or 50s or more recently."

Even after adjusting for other factors that contribute to breast cancer, such as age, weight, smoking and family history of the disease, the relationship between alcohol consumption and breast cancer remained. The relationship was also strongest in women who reported drinking more either early or late in life, suggesting that women may be more vulnerable to the effects of alcohol on breast tissue during those periods. Also, type of alcohol — red wine, beer or hard liquor — did not change women's risk.

Exactly how alcohol may trigger tumors isn't clear, but experts theorize that it activates estrogen production in the body; higher circulating levels of the hormone can promote breast cell growth. That theory seems to be supported by other data from Chen's study: most of the breast cancers diagnosed in the study's participants were positive for the estrogen receptor, meaning that the tumors were driven by and dependent on the hormone.

MORE: How a Compound in Red Wine Does the Body Good

So women face a difficult decision. Do the heart benefits of drinking outweigh the breast cancer risks? Younger women, who are at lower risk of heart disease than older women, may want to focus on their risk of developing cancer, Chen says, while older women or those with a family history of heart disease may choose to weight the cardiovascular benefits more heavily. But these risks will be different for every woman. "For each individual woman, whether or not she decides to change her drinking habits depends on her own personal risk factor profile to decide what is best for her," says Chen. If only every decision were as simple as choosing between red or white.

Russia: The TV News Story That Slipped by the Censors — for a While

On Sunday night, the Russian news show Central Television aired its typical reel of fluff and propaganda. A village boy recited a poem in praise of a policeman. Officials from Siberia were shown rehearsing for a play. And Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, dressed in a bomber jacket, took the wheel of a combine and harvested six tons of corn. "Imagine how much popcorn you can make!" rejoiced the anchor of the show. But then something strange happened. The program showed a piece about torture and police brutality in the region of Chechnya. It was an aberration. Had the censors fallen asleep? Had the journalists gone mad?
If so, then not for very long. The exposé about Chechen rights abuses, one of the most taboo subjects in the state-controlled media, only aired in half the country. Rolling westward across Russia's nine time zones, the original broadcast reached audiences in the Far East and Siberia, got to the Ural Mountains and was then abruptly stripped of the Chechnya story before it reached the country's heartland. In its place, most of Russia's citizens were shown a piece about ballet. (See pictures of Chechnya today.)
But the rest of the country got a stark dose of reality. A young Chechen man named Islam Umarpashaev, his mangled nose still bleeding into a bandage, told the viewers how he had been kidnapped from his home by men in uniform after he criticized the Chechen police online. He said he was held for four months, chained to a radiator in a basement, beaten, pistol whipped in the temple and repeatedly electrocuted. When he refused to confess to terrorism charges, he said the police began readying him for a staged counterterrorism operation, a practice he said they called "preparing results."
That meant, as a Russian journalist explained in the voice-over, his captors allowed his wounds to heal, fed him and allowed him to wash. Only he was not allowed to shave, so that his beard would make him look like the stereotype of an Islamic radical. As the voice-over went on to allege, Chechen police regularly stage shoot-outs with these dummy terrorists, whose bodies are left strewn about a building in Chechnya. The officers then tally the dead and file them as the latest success in Russia's war on terrorism. "The head of the [police] unit told me straight out," Umarpashaev said in the report, which was later posted on YouTube, "'We'll grow your hair and beard out a little more and put you in a trench.'" (See photos of Putin, the action figure.)
Although rights advocates have been reporting such abuses for years, nothing like this has been shown on state television since at least the early 2000s, when Putin asserted control over Russia's leading broadcasters. NTV, the channel that ran the Chechnya report on Sunday, was one of the last to be reined in. It was bought out by a state-run firm in 2001, and within a few years all of its critical journalists were fired.
Chechnya was meanwhile fading from the television screens and the public discourse. After two separatist wars between 1994 and 2000, billions of dollars were spent on the region's reconstruction. Putin also installed a loyal clan, led by the Kadyrov family, to control the region's militants. Every few months, claims of torture and extrajudicial killings in Chechnya would break through the region's media blackout, but the journalists and rights activists who reported them were often abducted, beaten or murdered. Most recently, in 2009, the activist Natalia Estemirova was kidnapped in Chechnya and dumped on the side of a road hours later with bullets in her head and chest.
The Russian Committee Against Torture, one of the only rights groups to remain in Chechnya after that murder, was still able to pressure police to release Umarpashaev when his parents contacted them with his story. The activists then gave him and his family refuge in a safe house, where the NTV journalists filmed. "[The reporters] told us they were taking a big risk," says Alexander Nemov, one of the group's activists. "They said there wasn't much chance of the program airing in Moscow. They just wanted to try it." (See Vladimir Putin as TIME's 2007 Person of the Year.)
But why now? And why did they back down? In statements to the press, NTV said it had pulled the story "for improvements" and has declined to comment further. The past year, however, has seen a noticeable loosening of the taboos that bind what is shown on Russian television. In May, an interview with imprisoned oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, one of Putin's oldest enemies, was allowed on state television for the first time in years. The report even mentioned the view of Amnesty International that he is a "prisoner of conscience."
But this is not because Russian journalists have gotten more brave or independent, says a senior producer at Channel One, the government's leading network. "The Kremlin simply realized that its grip is too tight, that nobody can breathe anymore," he told TIME in an interview Tuesday, asking to remain anonymous for fear of being fired. "It was starting to make us look bad in front of the West, and the difference between what is said on TV and what is discussed online was getting absurd, like the two are discussing different worlds."
President Dmitri Medvedev admitted as much last December, when he told the heads of the three leading channels that "news coverage is miserable ... as if there is no freedom of speech." He went on to insist that online news should not be "dramatically different" from television coverage. But like most of Medvedev's reformist ideas, this one stalled upon implementation.
"When the topic is politically sensitive, the Kremlin still calls and the story gets yanked," says the Channel One producer. So Sunday's exposé will do little more than reaffirm the gag order on coverage of Chechnya. By next March, when Putin is set to return to the presidency, such flukes will likely become a thing of the past. Across all of Russia's time zones, prime time will show pictures of him operating heavy machinery or performing other mindless tricks. And there is no use changing the channel.

China manufacturing activity slows amid growth concerns

China has reported an unexpected drop in manufacturing activity raising fresh concerns about the impact of a global slowdown on its economy.

China's Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) fell to 50.4 in October from 51.2 in the previous month, the first drop in three months.

The data comes amid fears that a slowdown in the global economy may dent demand for Chinese goods.

Authorities warned that growth may slow even further.

"Future export and investment growth is expected to continue to decline," said Zhang Liqun of the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing.

Slowing momentum

China's economic growth has been powered by the success of its manufacturing and export sector.

However, fears of a slowdown in the US and Europe, two of the biggest markets for Chinese exports, have raised concerns on whether the sector can sustain its growth.

The fears have been deepened further by today's data, which showed that the new orders index fell to 50.5 in October from 51.3 the month before.

Analysts said that as those regions grapple with economic problems, the effect was being felt by the Chinese manufacturers.

"The biggest concern is that the manufacturing sector's momentum is slowing," Rajeev Biswas of the IHS Global Insight told the BBC.

"The new export orders index is actually contracting and that is worrying as it highlights that the slowing demand from the US and Europe is starting to feed through to the Chinese export sector," he added.

City teach Manchester United a painful lesson

Post categories: Football, Manchester City, Manchester United, Premier League

Phil McNulty | 23:00 UK time, Sunday, 23 October 2011

Manchester City assembled grim statistical evidence around the feet of Sir Alex Ferguson like rubble - now Manchester United must piece the wreckage back together swiftly to silence talk of a permanent shift in power.

Ferguson did not hold back his emotions as he reflected on the on what United's manager called "our worst ever day - the worst result in my history, ever."

The last time Ferguson, in September 1989, he revealed he went home and buried his head underneath a pillow for hours on end in a bid to make the pain go away.

Ferguson may not have time to seek a similar remedy this time because the speed of City's advance, illustrated by this complete performance and led by the brilliance of David Silva, means they present a present danger to United's title.

The bullet points were blows to the pride of Ferguson and his humiliated players.
It was United's biggest home defeat since 1955, the first time United had conceded six goals at home since 1930 and their first loss at Old Trafford since April 2010.

City scored six in a Manchester derby for the first time since 1926. Photo: Reuters

Mario Balotelli's goals set the platform for the win, helped by Jonny Evans' red card right after the restart and Sergio Aguero's third gave the scoreline a realistic look.

And if Darren Fletcher's goal gave rise to fantasy about a trademark United comeback, brutal reality was restored with two late goals for substitute Edin Dzeko and a deserved strike for the wonderful Silva.
It was an embarrassment inflicted savagely by the club Ferguson dismissed as "noisy neighbours" as they bang at the door of his Old Trafford domain.
The Scot has fought for supremacy in domestic and European competition, but superiority in the city of Manchester has never been seriously challenged until now.
As United were reduced to chaos in the closing minutes in front of a rapidly-emptying and inappropriately-named "Theatre Of Dreams" the questions came almost as fast as the goals, three scored by City in stoppage time.
Was this the most significant result in recent Premier League history? Was this the day the tide finally turned, not just in Manchester but in England?
The significance of result, and the manner of it, must not be questioned. The backdrop to the derby was framed in the context of Roberto Mancini's approach and whether City had the self-belief to flex their growing muscles on their neighbours while coping with the pressure of leading the Premier League.
Mancini and City had this opportunity to make a statement in the toughest environment of all.
It was duly delivered in the most powerful style possible as 20 minutes of United domination gave way to City turning their full power on Ferguson's team in a way even their most wildly optimistic supporter would not have thought possible.
City are the finest and most talented team in the country at this moment. If anyone needs convincing, study Silva's pass for Dzeko's final goal, a thing of beauty and creation from the best player in the Premier League this season.
This does not mean anyone should be emboldened to make definitive long-term predictions based on one afternoon Ferguson and United will be keen to portray as a freak of footballing nature as opposed to a sign of what is to come.
Ferguson will bring measure and experience to this sudden emergency, as should those preparing to announce the crumbling of an empire on the back of one, shock-inducing, result.

Manchester United slumped to their heaviest defeat in the Premier League. Photo: Reuters

Those getting ready to write United's obituaries would do well to hold back as the rest of the season has the capacity to make fools of them all - but the message sent by City simply cannot be ignored.
Mancini and his players did not just take three points away from Old Trafford. They will have taken great reserves of confidence and a concrete-clad belief that they deserve to be league leaders and have the ability to stay there.
City were superior to United in all parts of the pitch. Mancini does not simply have a better first 11, he now has a bench of such strength that it will see him through the long winter and, he hopes, the expectation that will now increase.
The Italian has a squad rich in ability and numbers. It offers him a flexibility that may prove crucial as the season moves into its vital phases after the turn of the year, when United traditionally exert their own power.
If Ferguson missed a trick in the summer it was not investing in an A-List midfield man to replace the Paul Scholes.

City already possessed one in Silva and how sobering it must have been for Ferguson to see the player he coveted almost above all others, Samir Nasri, only a substitute after he was stolen from under his nose by Mancini.
For Mancini there was vindication for his methods, the most powerful proof that he is willing to take the shackles off the varied attacking talents he has assembled at such cost.
And this only 24 hours after his predecessor Mark Hughes proved the old adage that the secret of good comedy will always lie in the timing after he chose to question Mancini's "autocratic" style of management. He may have been wishing he had held his tongue as City's team of temperaments mauled United.
One man currently offering compelling evidence in favour of Mancini's management is the maverick young Italian Mario Balotelli, moving from the ridiculous to the sublime with two goals after showing his more chaotic personal side by igniting part of his own house by setting off fireworks.
He set up the headline writer's dream with his Old Trafford encore, but of greater importance was his contribution to the team effort and even the emergence of an ability to laugh at his own occasional accident-prone nature, lifting up his shirt after opening the scoring to reveal a t-shirt emblazoned with the slogan "Why Always Me?"
And in among the many delights for Mancini, there came crucial contributions from some who could almost be called the undercard behind Silva, Balotelli and Aguero.
Micah Richards recovered from early discomfort against Ashley Young to again raise questions about England coach Fabio Capello's apparent determination to ignore him, while James Milner put in the shift of shifts as he moved from box to box with equal influence.
This result may mark a seminal moment in Premier League history if United cannot respond, while City will be tempted to treat this 90 minutes as the moment the revolution fuelled by Abu Dhabi's petro-dollars finally arrived.
Mancini the pragmatist will not allow complacency to take hold. And he will know that if Ferguson did indeed take refuge underneath his pillow on Sunday evening, his every thought will have been occupied on how to make sure this was not the day he handed over the keys of power in Manchester to City.

Gunners firing blanks without Van Persie

Post categories: Arsenal

Phil McNulty | 06:46 UK time, Wednesday, 2 November 2011

Robin van Persie's absence made the hearts of Arsenal fans grow fonder as the feast of Chelsea was followed by famine in his absence against Marseille.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, with a caution shaped by Van Persie's chequered injury history, restricted the hat-trick hero of Saturday's 5-3 win at Stamford Bridge to the role of substitute rather than offer him the full Champions League experience at the Emirates.

And in doing so Wenger laid bare the dilemma that will face him and his team as the importance - some might say indispensability - of Van Persie was exposed by this drab draw that denied Arsenal the opportunity to secure early qualification from the group phase.

Wenger said starting Robin van Persie on the bench was "a gamble that didn't come off". Photo: Getty

Wenger explained the thinking behind his decision not to start Van Persie as he said: "It was a gamble. You can say tonight that it didn't come off. Robin was tired, that's why I left him out. It was down to fatigue. He cannot play 50 games."

There is sound logic in Wenger's argument, although hindsight suggests a better ploy may have been to start with Van Persie and use the wave of brilliant form he is currently riding to apply early pressure to Marseille in an attempt to establish a winning position before removing him.

Instead, the arrival of the team-sheet more or less set the tone for the evening. Arsenal's fans turned up on a high after Saturday but there was an almost instant sense of deflation when he was only listed among the substitutes.

Van Persie received a roar markedly more resounding than any of his team-mates when his name was read out, while even a gentle jog down the touchline, especially in one the many turgid passages during this group game, was greeted like the arrival of a conquering hero.

It was almost as if this game would not be complete until Van Persie made his entrance, which he did just after the hour. But when he arrived the pattern was set and Arsenal had lost momentum to such an extent that even he was unable to effect a change.

On the field at least, in the absence of injured Jack Wilshere and even with the rapidly developing Aaron Ramsey, Van Persie carries the hopes of this club.

It is disrespectful to those two talents and others besides to suggest Arsenal are a one-man team, but there is no doubt Van Persie's quality means he now wields a lop-sided influence.

So while there must be full understanding of the balancing act Wenger has to perform with this precious but occasionally fragile talent, it was a night that emphatically underlined why Van Persie now lines up just behind his manager as Arsenal's most influential figure.

And it also illustrated the potential consequences should Van Persie suffer more frailty with his fitness. At the sharp end of Arsenal's game the Netherlands striker is starting to look irreplaceable, especially when statistics such as 28 goals in his last 27 Premier League games and 33 in his last 37 all told are presented.

Van Persie may have missed Arsenal's best chance of the game 13 minutes from time when he failed to get enough height on his attempted chip over Marseille keeper Steve Mandanda, but he carries an air of menace no other striker at Wenger's disposal comes close to giving off.

Gervinho was hard-working but unsure of touch against Marseille, while the South Korean Ju-Young Park looked a work in progress, off the pace and a marginal figure.

Andrey Arshavin emerged as a substitute with no impact and has undergone a rapid decline in performances, while the injured Marouane Chamakh's recent displays have provoked the jibe that he is the free transfer that looks increasingly like a waste of money.

Should Van Persie suffer an absence of any length - and his class alone means no one with Arsenal or the Premier League's best interests at heart would want this - that particular cupboard looks bare.

Wenger would have to mix-and-match should that happen and even then he may have to consider strengthening in January, never the ideal time to add real quality to a club with ambitions in the Champions League and Premier League.

At least, while Wenger keeps his fingers crossed that his finest player stays in his current rude health, Arsenal kept a clean sheet despite a disappointing performance and remain in control at the top of their Champions League group.

They will have high hopes of topping the group and avoiding the most hazardous opponents in the knockout phase, while another player of great importance returned to show his quality.

Thomas Vermaelen was captain in Van Persie's absence and showed the authority that has been sorely missed in his battle to recover from an Achilles injury.

He coaxed a more assured performance from his central defensive partner Per Mertesacker, and a happier conundrum for Wenger will be how to accommodate that pair and Laurent Koscielny, outstanding at Chelsea but sitting alongside Van Persie on the bench on Tuesday.

The Belgian may yet end up at left-back as Andre Santos once again showed he is a real talent with the ball at his feet but has a very loose interpretation of his description as a defender. The Brazilian, still looking short of fitness, covers plenty of ground but much of it is when he is out of position.

Santos is a wing-back masquerading as a left-back, too prone to indisciplined runs upfield and too often the cause of gaping holes on the left side of Arsenal's defence. He is, to put it kindly, a free spirit when it comes to positioning.

He will undoubtedly be fun, but Wenger's task is to harness natural gifts on the ball to the structure of his team to ensure he is fun in a good way for Arsenal.

No serious damage was done to Arsenal's Champions League aspirations by this result but it was an opportunity missed to confirm qualification.

This can be achieved with a point at home to Borussia Dortmund later this month, but history and last season's exit to Barcelona will tell Wenger finishing at the head of Group F has to be top priority.

Van Persie is central to all those ambitions as the one reliable, ruthless attacking weapon Wenger has in his armoury.

Arsenal supporters, understandably frustrated on Tuesday, may point to the talent elsewhere in Wenger's squad but reality, the sort of reality they saw against Marseille, will tell them Van Persie is the man they need to stay fit.

Sir Alex Ferguson 25 years: 'You can't win anything with kids'

BBC's Match of the Day football pundit Manchester United celebrate their 1995-96 Premier League triumph

Man Utd celebrate winning the Premier League in 1996 with a team of "kids"

Sir Alex Ferguson's 25th anniversary at Manchester United is a remarkable achievement for a remarkable man and he has earned every plaudit he will receive.

I played under Alex as a manager for Scotland, faced him as a fiercely competitive opponent when I was captain of Liverpool and he was in charge at Old Trafford, then observed his great successes at close quarters as a pundit for the BBC. I have nothing other than total respect for him.

People often talk about two things that happened during the years mentioned above - his decision to leave me out of Scotland's 1986 World Cup squad to go to Mexico and the day I ended my analysis of a United defeat with the words "you can't win anything with kids".

This was made at the start of the 1995-96 season when United lost at Aston Villa after selling Paul Ince, Mark Hughes and Andrei Kanchelskis, a season they ended by winning the Premier League and FA Cup Double.

"You can't win anything with kids" - Alan Hansen speaking in 1995

Some people have the perception that Alex and I fell out when he left me out of that World Cup squad. We never had a problem then and there has never been one since.

Whenever I see him he is always very friendly and communicative - 1986 was simply his opinion against mine and, of course, as Scotland manager he had the final say.

Alex was actually apologetic about it. When he told me I just said I thought he was wrong. He said he couldn't get everyone into a 22-man squad and he was going to go with Scotland-based players Willie Miller and Alex McLeish in my position.

I had just captained Liverpool's Double-winning team and thought it had been one of my best seasons. I felt that if I couldn't get into the squad there was something wrong. It was a difference of opinion but certainly not an argument.

As for me saying, "You can't win anything with kids", I suppose those words could have haunted me given the phenomenal success United enjoyed. Instead they made me and people still talk about it now.

Alex has never said it but I think he might have agreed with me to a certain extent - and some people have told me he used to say "you'll win nothing with kids" to his players to inspire them. So I suppose you could say I played my part in their success.

What you have to remember is that those "kids" were an exceptional bunch like David Beckham, Gary and Phil Neville, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs. And there was a lot of experience as well with Peter Schmeichel, Roy Keane, Gary Pallister, Steve Bruce and Eric Cantona. It was also the season Newcastle contrived to throw away a nine-point lead.

MAN UTD'S TEAM v ASTON VILLA, OPENING DAY OF THE 1995-96 PREMIER LEAGUE SEASON

Peter Schmeichel
Gary Neville
Paul Parker
Gary Pallister
Denis Irwin
Lee Sharpe
Paul Scholes
Roy Keane
Nicky Butt
Phil Neville
Brian McClair
Subs: David Beckham, John O'Kane, Simon Davies

I only played under Alex a couple of times with Scotland. He had been very successful at Aberdeen, breaking up the Old Firm's domination. He was youngish in managerial terms and had taken over as Scotland boss from one of the older generation in Jock Stein.

Alex was enthusiastic, knew what he was doing and you instantly formed the impression that this was a manager you could play for. He could get the best out of players and that is the very basis of good, successful management.

Some people think Alex and they think volatility - volatility with journalists, volatility with referees. But, with his own players - as I learned with Scotland, he was 110% behind them and fostered an us-against-them attitude.

To stay in management for 25 years is some achievement, but to do it for that length of time at a club like Manchester United, where you are under such pressure to get results and attention is focused on you every day, shows the sort of man he is.

You have got to have the drive, hunger, motivation and desire to get up every day and get the best out of your players. At the start of every season you have to have all those things personally - and you also have to ensure your players have that as well.

He must have tremendous inner and mental strength to do what he does, as well as complete self-belief. He must still want it so badly that he can't walk away. Why should he while he is still winning Premier Leagues and taking United to Champions League finals?

It can be like a drug - but it is a drug that can wear you out. Alex announced his retirement a few years ago, then realised it was a mistake and carried on. He was still motivated and has never stepped back from meeting a challenge.

Sir Alex Ferguson's 25th anniversary at Manchester United is a remarkable achievement and he has earned every plaudit he will receive

Alan Hansen BBC Match of the Day pundit

I had some great times at Liverpool but knew when I was coming towards the end. If I could have had the great times without the pressure it would have been perfect but I knew in my mind I was ready to go.

The pressure came with meeting the standards at Liverpool and every season was getting harder - but Alex has done this for 25 years at a club like Manchester United. It takes some doing and makes my admiration for him even greater.

You also need the nous and experience to keep producing winning teams. When United lost to Liverpool in the FA Cup fifth round in 2006 I really thought they were coming to the end of their successes. They were so bad it was embarrassing.

The Chelsea revolution was in full swing and you thought United's era of dominance may be coming to an end, not a conclusion anyone would reach lightly. And yet Ferguson rebuilt to win three successive titles in 2007, 2008 and 2009 and the Champions League against Chelsea in 2008. This ranks up with his greatest achievements.

When I captained Liverpool to the title in what turned out to be my last game in 1990, who would believe we would be sitting here 21 years later and they have not won it since?

Manchester United have dominated those years - and the towering presence throughout has been Sir Alex Ferguson.

Alan Hansen was talking to BBC Sport's Phil McNulty.