Unsurprisingly, it's reaction to the Champions League draw that is top of the agenda for the press today, with some mouthwatering ties to look forward too in the last-16 of Europe's premier club competition.

Chelsea v Inter and Manchester United v AC Milan appear to be the two standout ties because of the respective returns of messrs Mourinho and Beckham, and James Ducker at the Times chooses to examine the latter, with Beckham in line to make his first competitive playing return to Old Trafford since leaving the club in 2003.

"David Beckham always said that he never wanted to leave Manchester United and yesterday the Champions League draw gave him the chance to make an emotional return to Old Trafford for the first time since he was effectively booted out by Sir Alex Ferguson more than six years ago.

The England midfield player will join AC Milan on loan for a second time from the Los Angeles Galaxy in nine days’ time, but while the move was intended primarily to maintain his form and fitness before the World Cup finals in South Africa, it will hold an extra significance after the Serie A club were paired with his former team in the first knockout round.

Yesterday’s draw may not have been what either team wanted — or Ferguson, whose dim view of the fanfare that surrounds Beckham is well known and arguably the main reason he sold him to Real Madrid in July 2003 — but it is a dream pairing as far as the player is concerned."

And Derek Mcgovern, the Mirror's chief betting expert, takes a slightly more irreverent look at the Becks return.

"David Beckham was told to beware of flying boots when yesterday's Champions League draw handed him a return to Old Trafford - but dispelled fears when he said Posh wouldn't be travelling.

United v Milan is the draw everyone wanted, particularly Milan. It takes Beckham back to the club which gave him his most successful moments. It's a real Cinderella story for Becks (below) but such a shame that, with Phil Neville having joined Everton, he won't team up again with the ugly sisters.

Milan were pushed out from 16-1 to 25-1 after the draw - the only one in the last six months that hasn't involved Manchester City - and at those odds are crying out to be backed. Jose Mourinho's Porto were similarly dismissed when drawing United at the same stage five years ago and went on to win the trophy."

Elsewhere, Amy Lawrence at the Guardian interviews Fulham striker Bobby Zamora about life at Craven Cottage, Eric Cantona, comparisons to Emile Heskey and his recent request for Fulham fans to "shut your f****** mouths" after scoring a recent winner against Sunderland.

"It is the morning after Fulham Football Club took an impressive leap into the knockout phase of the Europa Cup. Bobby Zamora is carrying slight bags under his eyes after a late return from Switzerland. It had been a positive night for him personally as well as for the club, as he scored twice and helped to create the third with a decoy run, but discussing the finer details was something he only fancied doing on autopilot.

The conversation shifts, and there is one word which compels his manner to change completely: Cantona. Zamora sparks up, as if suddenly bathed in light. He breaks into an enormous smile. "Brilliant," he says. Now you're talking.

There are abundant aspects of the former Manchester United maverick to appreciate, but Zamora feels particular admiration for the most famous of them all, when Cantona responded to the vitriol spewed down from the stands with that notorious kung-fu kick at Selhurst Park."

Staying in the Premier League, and while the debate continues to rage about which team has the best chance of breaking into the top four this season, Barney Ronay at the Guardian ignores obvious contenders Aston Villa, Spurs and Manchester City, choosing instead to focus on an outside contender - Everton.

"Who do we back to crack the Big Four? This week it has been even harder than usual to avoid talking, or hearing other people talk, about the Premier League "Big Four". The reason for the excitement has been the ongoing fascination that a club from outside Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal might finally "crack the Big Four". So entrenched has this obsession become that the pack of chasing big-four-crackers has already taken on an exclusive, clubby feel of its own, and is, in turn, being pursued by a further select pack of clubs desperate to "crack" the select pack of clubs trying to crack the Big Four.

This is a strange period in the Premier League's fevered, but oddly stagnant history. It's also no doubt all for the best, even if no matter how much you might loathe, or simply be crushingly bored by, the idea of an overclass gorged on a self-perpetuating generational supremacy, it is by now quite hard to feel consistently hostile towards the Big Four, who have been there long enough to seem sinister, but also secretly reassuring, like America, or Sky Sports, or bickering quietly with your wife in the car."