With the Manchester derby looming large on Tuesday night, the papers focus on the figure of Carlos Tevez, who left United in the summer and joined City, where he has hit a rich seam of form in recent weeks.

After he failed to get on the scoresheet on his first return to Old Trafford, when United won 4-3 in September, Tevez returns to United in excellent shape and Paul Wilson, writing in the Guardian, wonders if the Argentina international is ready to prove Sir Alex Ferguson wrong after he deemed Tevez too expensive.

In 'Classy or costly? Carlos Tevez has a chance to settle the debate', Wilson writes:

"According to Mike Summerbee, a former favourite whose own workrate was more eye-catching than his finishing or technical ability, Tevez has already made himself popular at Eastlands and not just by preferring City to United. 'City fans will always take to players like him who give 100%,' Summerbee said. 'He is a hard-working player but he has top-flight ability as well.'

"That is the nub of the issue, for were it merely a question of workrate and application Tevez might still be in favour at Old Trafford. The player never let anyone down at United and Sir Alex Ferguson repeatedly praised his energetic contributions, yet the manager found it difficult to offer him a regular starting berth and eventually decided, or at least did not come to sufficiently decisive a conclusion to convince Tevez that he meant it, that £25m was a lot to ask for a striker whose misses were as notable as his goals.

"Particularly when United already had Wayne Rooney, who covers much of the same ground as Tevez, and, like the Argentinian, prefers to play just behind a more advanced striker. Ferguson decided to stake everything on a partnership developing between Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov and let City work out how best to utilize Tevez. Tonight's game could be regarded as something of a showdown to prove which side showed the better judgment, even though Tevez has had more attacking partners than City have had free flights to Abu Dhabi."