Thursday's papers are as damning in their criticism of Arsenal's Champions League performance against Inter Milan as they were effusive in their praise of Manchester United a day before. The Gunners went down 3-0 to their Italian opponents at Highbury - in stark contrast to United, who hammered Panathinaikos 5-0 at Old Trafford on Tuesday night.
"Inter Milan inflicted a humiliating lesson which put Arsenal's European dreams into stark perspective," writes John Cross in the Daily Mirror.
The dejected figure of Arsenal striker Thierry Henry, who missed a first-half penalty at Highbury, stands next to the headline "Simply blown apart" on the back page of the Daily Express.
The stark headline "Shambles" dominates the back of the Daily Mail and Ian McGarry describes Arsenal's defeat as a "humiliation".
 | THE HEADLINES The Times: Ferguson's focus now turned to Arsenal Daily Telegraph: Reading in court to block Pardew The Sun: Face-off Daily Express: Simply blown apart Daily Mail: Shambles Daily Star: Lampard: I hate it on Blues bench Daily Mirror: Italian job III The Guardian: Rangers surge on Ibrox roar The Independent: Eriksson attempts to placate Turkey |
By a strange quirk of fate, Arsenal travel to Old Trafford on Sunday to take on United in the Premiership.
And Ryan Giggs, man-of-the-match in United's demolition of their hapless Greek opponents, believes the Reds are approaching their best form.
"We've gone up a gear," the Welshman ominously warns in The Times.
"It's always nice going into a big one with your confidence on a high, which we will be doing on Sunday."
Midfielder Frank Lampard is the latest Chelsea player to complain about being left out of Claudio Ranieri's all-star team in the Daily Star.
Lampard was relegated to the bench for Chelsea's 1-0 Champions League win over Sparta Prague on Tuesday night.
"For the last five years I've played non-stop for West Ham and Chelsea," moans the England international.
The Sun leads with the news that England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson wants to hold "peace talks" with Turkey counterpart Senol Gunes ahead of the crucial - and potentially volatile - meeting between the two countries next month.
The Guardian, which is sometimes guilty of strange story selection, chooses to lead with news of Rangers' impressive Champions League victory over Stuttgart - a match played on Tuesday night.
MMIX
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