The snow may have caused havoc with the fixture, but the Independent's Tim Rich still wants to talk about the Carling Cup; and Manchester United's Sire Alex Ferguson in particular. He sets the scene:

It was long gone midnight at Lisbon Airport as the aircraft chartered by Manchester United trundled down the runway. Sir Alex Ferguson, as he usually did, sat in the front. In the back were the journalists and most believed this was the last flight they would take with him.

One ordered champagne, which provoked something of an inquiry at Old Trafford. But the man from The Sun always ordered a glass of champagne on the return flight whether United won, lost or drew and for the reasons most of us would when it is free. He would miss him, we would miss him. But it was the end.

It was December 2005. Several hours earlier, in the Stadium of Light, Benfica, a club that always seems to be linked with Manchester United, had eliminated them from the Champions League. For the first time since 1994 they had failed to reach the knock-out stages and had finished last in their group. They were a dozen points adrift of Chelsea and under a new ownership determined to squeeze every drop of revenue from the club. Roy Keane, Ferguson's great lieutenant, had departed amid clouds of acrimony. David Beckham was long gone. Ryan Giggs, temporarily as it turned out, was fading. Everyone at Old Trafford knew he should never have sold Jaap Stam.

In the Sunday Times, Hugh McIlvanney, the man who had co-written his autobiography – ghosted is not the word – suggested that Ferguson should engineer his own departure rather than be "fired by remote control from Florida". However, he had one card to play. Not a very good card, admittedly, but Manchester United were still in the Carling Cup and it was suddenly important.

You would be foolish to write off United this season, he adds, as we have been in this situation before:

When they won the Carling Cup, with a 4-0 demolition of Wigan Athletic at the Millennium Stadium, Ferguson paraded it as if it were the European Cup and that, after perhaps the most astonishing revival of his career, was precisely what, two years later, he was holding in Moscow.

Now, after the sting of defeat by Leeds United in the FA Cup, the Carling Cup is suddenly important again at Old Trafford and not just because the semi-final opponents are Manchester City... [Ferguson] is a man around whom footballers of the quality of Jonny Evans, Darren Fletcher and the Da Silva twins could gel and, if they do, who knows what piece of silverware the old fox might be holding in two years' time? It might be a carriage clock, it might just be a European Cup.

In the Times, Matt Hughes takes a look at Arsenal's William Gallas, a fallen star? Or the driving force behind their recent success? In fact, Hughes finds that Arsene Wenger is willing to break his own rules to keep him.

When William Gallas was stripped of the captaincy after an outspoken attack on his team-mates last season, his days at Arsenal looked numbered. But such has been his professionalism since that Arsène Wenger is ready to offer him a new contract. The Arsenal manager described Gallas’s performances this season as amazing and revealed yesterday that he intends to discuss an extended deal with the centre back’s representatives this month.

The France defender’s contract expires in the summer and he would like to stay, although negotiations could be complicated by Arsenal’s informal policy of offering only one-year deals to outfield players over 30. Wenger suggested that he could break his own rule to keep hold of a player who will be 33 in August, however, because Gallas would certainly attract a longer contract from several clubs in France, albeit on reduced wages.