All Arsenal fans are scared stiff of seeing Alex Manninger between the posts again, but Arsene Wenger is ignoring our pleas to bring in a new keeper. That's the gist of a fine piece of Christmas journalism in The Sun (see its Supergoals website).

'Alex's confidence is a problem for us at the moment but I am not planning on bringing anyone else in,' says Le Boss. 'We will work on Manninger in training, give him encouragement and help to rebuild his self-belief.'

They reckon Arsene seriously considered signing Magnus Hedman (from Coventry) and Jerzy Dudek (from Feyenoord) - but opted not to.

They're fairly dismissive of ('hefty England ace') David Seaman's health and ('potential successor') Stuart Taylor's maturity... making (their opinion, not ours!) John Lukic, 40 the only man able to 'handle the pressure of a Premiership title bid'.