It is hard to get philosophical about an away game at Stoke. It is going to be difficult and is likely to be grim. What’s more, last week we were being fed the football equivalent of lobster on the top of Mount Olympus by a naked Marilyn Monroe – so it was always going to be a come down from there.

This has been a terrible week for my health. On Sunday I nearly had a heart attack and for the following two days I couldn't draw breath. Since then I have been breaking out into uncontrollable fits of laughter. It is only this morning I realise the giggling must stop. We have troubles in defence guys.

Character is alive and well at Manchester United FC. With all due respect to last year’s Mickey Mouse Cup Final this was probably the biggest match off between the two clubs since the sixties. United were fantastic.

As one of our readers has pointed out, the commentators on ESPN were very Spurs biased (thanks Roberta) which was pretty out of order. I’ll turn the sound off and take the three points any day of the week.

You have always got to question yourself if found agreeing with Mark Lawrenson. Monsieur mole-moustache and moi were both of the opinion that Fergie would buy again and we were both wrong.