Manchester City laid a marker down against their city rivals, with Carlos Tevez especially impressive with his two goals in the Carling Cup. The Times' Matt Dickinson has his say on the 2-1 win for City.

It is nights like this that give credence to the idea that Manchester United and Manchester City, light years apart not so long ago, are now on a trajectory in which their futures become entwined. You can draw that conclusion from City’s victory. You can see it in the name of their match-winner, Carlos Tévez, stolen away from Old Trafford.

But, most of all, it was there to be seen in the gesture that Gary Neville made to Tévez as the two exchanged insults after the latter’s first goal. Not so long ago United had dismissed their local rivals as “noisy neighbours”. Now they were being drawn into a bitter row over the garden fence.

Tevez, of course, took a lot of the headlines and Dickinson thinks United may rue their decision not to keep the Argentine.

In the search for pointers to the future, we alight on Tévez himself. United turned down the opportunity to sign the Argentinian last summer when the price rose to £47 million and the wages to £7 million a year. It was hard to quibble at the time.

But any decision based on controlling costs at Old Trafford is starting to be seen in a different light these days since the full, monstrous burden of the Glazer ownership was revealed. As Rooney chased around on his own, the best player on the pitch forced to flog himself once again in the lone-striker role, how could one not despair at how United’s attacking resources have been diminished?

On the other side of the world, Diego Maradona may not be everyone's cup of tea, but with the World Cup getting ever closer he's finding himself the subject of more column inches. The Independent's James Lawton has an interview with the big little-man and looks at his impact as he lands in Pretoria..

Something extraordinary is happening here 141 days before the opening of the World Cup. It is Diego Maradona. There may still be major problems, security questions, worries about ticket sales, but suddenly they seem less oppressive. Maradona is, more full-heartedly than anyone could have imagined in his circumstances, moving among the people.

He may be a walking time bomb but his meaning, here at least, goes beyond a lifetime of a glory so repeatedly threatened by self-destruction. At a vital moment in the progress towards another World Cup, Maradona is a potent reminder of what the great tournament means. It is the enduring glamour of the most magnetic of footballers and, astonishingly when you retrace the turmoil of his last few years, Maradona still carries it with every stride.

And the great man himself? Well, he's not fussed about England too much:

He doesn't rate the Capello- transformed England among the most serious of his threats. "They are a strong team, of course, but I place them in the second rank of favourites. The first rank is occupied by Brazil and Spain and Germany. They are the teams I most fear but I do not fear them too much."