Monday's media outlets were full of reports that Stoke City manager Tony Pulis and striker James Beattie were involved in a physical confrontation following defeat to Arsenal and Tuesday's papers add some juicy detail to the confrontation.

Apparently, Pulis overheard his striker complaining about plans to cancel the club's two-night Christmas party in favour of an extra training session and was so incensed he emerged stark naked form the shower to headbutt Beattie.

Matt Lawton takes up the story in the Daily Mail:

"Beattie highlighted what he considered to be a breach of their agreement and a harsh reaction to the defeat at the Emirates, Pulis exploded in a fit of rage. As he was emerging from the showers in the dressing room he lunged towards Beattie, with the players astonished both by the violence and the fact that the towel he was wearing had fallen to the floor.

Privately the Stoke manager blames Beattie for the controversy, feeling that he gave the players no such permission to miss training on Monday and that Beattie, among a number of senior players, had been made to look foolish in front of their more junior colleagues having promised that they would ‘sort it’ and get the whole weekend off.

Pulis, it is understood, believes that is what prompted Beattie to criticise him, with Beattie failing to realise that, from the showers, Pulis could hear him. Beattie has a slightly different version of events, however, and now feels that the damage it has done to his relationship with Pulis is irreparable."

In light of Frank Lampard and Jermain Defoe missing crucial penalties in the Premier League this weekend Matt Dickinson uses his column in The Times to suggest Fabio Capello must cure England's spot-kick disease to stand any chance of winning the World Cup.

"So there we all were at the weekend plotting England’s route to World Cup glory. A favourable group, winnable matches in the first couple of knockout rounds and then the semi-finals. And anything can happen at that stage, even against Brazil.

If a cold shower was needed to stop expectations running wilder than a bushfire, it came courtesy of Frank Lampard and Jermain Defoe failing to score important spot-kicks at the weekend; the sort they might just face next summer in infinitely more pressurised circumstances. Ah yes, England footballers and penalties. That’s when things get tricky."