With a hint of inevitability, most of today's newspapers still seem to prefer to preview David Beckham's return to Old Trafford - a game in which he might not even feature in the starting line-up - than bask in the glory of a sensational Champions League display last night from Arsenal.

But fear not, because there is still some credibility out there, with Amy Lawrence at the Guardian, who was at that match, discussing Arsenal's chances of European glory. There is praise for Andrei Ashavin and the Gunners young midfield, but could a Champions League title be a step too far?

"The elongated three-week gap between the two legs of this last-16 tussle has brought substantial change for Arsenal. They won three Premier League games while the title favourites hiccupped and eased closer to the summit, reinstated the first-choice goalkeeper at the expense of the fretful Lukasz Fabianski, lost their captain to a hamstring strain, and were doused in the emotional fuel of the Aaron Ramsey injury.

But perhaps the most significant shift is that, prior to the first leg, Arsène Wenger reasonably judged the Champions League as their better bet for silverware – and that was a long shot. And now? Nine domestic games, largely against moderate opposition, is favourable to the ferocious challenge in Europe. Five more knock-out games against the calibre of team Arsenal have floundered against looks several hurdles too far for this team, despite the verve with which they dismantled Porto. On the off-chance they did outmanoeuvre, say, Real Madrid in the next round, then Chelsea could be next. Or Barcelona. Or Manchester United. To put it into some perspective, in their 2006 run to the final they confronted Real, Juventus, Villarreal and Barcelona.

To Arsenal's huge credit, they turned around a European deficit against Porto – something they have not managed in continental competition since Hajduk Split were beaten at Highbury in 1978 – without three pivotal players. The injury updates on William Gallas, Cesc Fábregas and Robin van Persie suggest it is not impossible they will have again to try to compete without such an important trio in the quarter-finals."

Elsewhere and Martin Samuel at the Mail is in the mood for a history lesson - specifically a Liverpool related one. He points out that as results have got worse for the Anfield club, the more they seem to point to their history as some sort of saving grace.

But Samuel's point is clear, both Manchester City and Chelsea - often criticised by fans for having no history - can claim past feats that trump those achievements of Liverpool.

""Henry Ford. You wouldn’t want him on your pub quiz team but he certainly knew how to run a business. It must go forward. It must be evolving and improving constantly.

Football clubs are the same. Everyone knows Ford’s pithy history quote, but he regularly expanded on the subject to great effect. ‘We don’t want tradition,’ he said. ‘We want to live in the present and the only history worth a tinker’s damn is the history we make today.’

And this brings us to Javier Mascherano. Last month, when Liverpool were playing Manchester City in what some misguidedly believed was a decider for the fourth Champions League place, Mascherano had some interesting things to say. He joined in a familiar Anfield refrain and announced City had no history.

‘Maybe if City got into the top four they would build on that as Chelsea did,’ opined Mascherano. ‘But I will tell you one thing: you can buy players, but you cannot buy history. At Liverpool, we play with the history of the club. We don’t have the money they have, but we are proud to play for Liverpool. I don’t want to play for Manchester City.'

This is an increasingly popular theme at a club where history has been redefined along exactingly narrow parameters to mean not all events that happened in the past, but success attained in a previous existence.

Chelsea do not have history either, apparently, despite beating Liverpool to a European trophy by two years in 1971. Manchester City beat them into being by five years, to the FA Cup by 61 years, to the League Cup by 11 years and to a European trophy by three years"