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Sir Alex Ferguson became the first manager to win 100 Champions League games as Manchester United beat Galatasaray 1-0 at Old Trafford, Manchester Evening News reports.

The result could prove to be vital for United, who only managed two points from their opening two matches in last season’s competition- causing them to exit at the group stages.

Michael Carrick’s seventh-minute goal should have been the platform to a more convincing victory, but the Turkish champions continued to create numerous chances, with David de Gea forced to make some vital saves.

But Ferguson understandably did not reflect on his latest milestone and seemed to be more focused on the result.

He said: “After the experience of last season which was an unusual one for us, the result was the most important thing. Getting three points from the first game, is a bonus.

“For our club, it is more than that, it is about playing the brand of football we are recognised for and at times we did. The first 15 minutes we played very well and got the goal.

But the 70-year-old Scot will be worried by the Red Devils’ careless possession play and the way the Istanbul side cut through his team so easily.

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Although, what will be even more concerning for the United manager is the number of missed chances, particularly in the second-half, as Nani missed the team’s third penalty in a row and Javier Hernandez spurned several opportunities to score.

“Fortunately half time came at a good time for us because we were far more solid, they didn’t make any chances at all. We missed so many chances second half, that was the worrying part”, he added.

‘Shrewd addition’ or the ‘next Michael Silvestre?’

Arsenal fans are torn about their potential new addition, West Bromwich Albion defender, Jonny Evans.

The Northern Ireland centre half, 30, has been linked with the club persistently since the January transfer window where they almost brought the player in, only for a deadline day bid – reportedly £12million – to fall through.

But now that vice-captain, Laurent Koscielny, has been ruled out for at least 6 months, speculation linking Arsenal to return for the ex-United defender this transfer window has been rife.

The Sun report that efforts have been relaunched to bring the want-away player to North London and suggest that Evans could be available on the cheap with the defender rumoured to have a £3million relegation release clause with West Brom.

However even with the discounted asking price, Arsenal supporters are less than convinced that the three time Premier League winner is right for the club.

Gunner’s fans have been busy on Twitter reacting to the rumours and for the most part they are not very keen on the idea of the ex-United man moving to North London.

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Here is a selection of the best of what’s being said…

According to reports in The Telegraph, Manchester United face competition from Premier League rivals West Ham United in the race to sign Inter Milan midfielder Joao Mario, who The Sun reported in December they want to bring in to replace Henrikh Mkhitaryan if the 28-year-old leaves this month.

What’s the word, then?

Well, The Telegraph reports that the Irons are keen to sign the Portugal international on a loan deal until the end of the season, and having come to an agreement with the Serie A giants they must now convince the player to come to the London Stadium.

That could be easier said than done though considering The Sun reported last month that United were keen to bring him to Old Trafford in a £40m deal if Henrikh Mkhitaryan went the other way, although the Armenian now looks set for Arsenal instead.

However, The Telegraph adds that Inter don’t want to sell him on a permanent basis this month, and it remains to be seen whether the Red Devils would be willing to accept a loan deal.

How has Joao Mario done this season?

Despite costing €45m (£39.8m) when he joined Inter from Sporting Lisbon in the summer of 2016, the 24-year-old has struggled to hold down a place in the first team.

This term, he has found himself behind Marcelo Brozovic in the pecking order and has made just 15 appearances in all competitions, with more than half of his 14 Serie A outings coming from the substitutes’ bench.

According to WhoScored.com, the Portugal international’s main strengths are his dribbling and his ability to make key passes, and he has successfully completed 10 of the 14 take-ons he has attempted in the league during the current campaign, while he has made 17 key passes and has an overall passing accuracy of 89.4%.

Would he be a good signing for United?

He certainly could be.

The 24-year-old has largely played in a central attacking midfield role for Inter this season, but he can play in a deep-lying position too.

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Jose Mourinho will know his Portuguese compatriot well, and he could be tempted by a loan move for him considering the money the club looks set to spend on a deal for Arsenal’s Alexis Sanchez.

United certainly won’t worry about West Ham’s interest if they do want the player, knowing that they could offer him Champions League football.

At first glance and without much inspection, it appears as though Tottenham are back on course. Four points from a possible six, one of which was secured in a 2-2 draw against Manchester United, is a positive turnaround from the weeks leading up to it. But that doesn’t alter the fact that Andre Villas-Boas still has a lot to do.

What the Spurs manager doesn’t need is the interfering of the club’s hierarchy, who are reportedly in favour of a tactical switch that includes two strikers. It convolutes and in turn exacerbates the situation. Villas-Boas may be experiencing some difficulties, but the Tottenham board wouldn’t have appointed him last year if they didn’t believe he was up to the task.

Which is why thoughts, however accurate the reports are, of Villas-Boas’ sacking should be thrown out the window. He did a lot more good than bad last season, making clear steps to climb the Premier League table that would see Tottenham remain there long term.

So what has changed? Talk of title challenges in the wake of losing the team’s best player was premature, unnecessary and wholly unrealistic. It doesn’t matter how good the new recruits are or can be, the bedding-in period lasts longer than a group breakfast and a kick about on the training pitch. Importantly, Villas-Boas wasn’t one to fuel such claims of titles in May.

The expectancy for some kind of progression this season considering what was spent in the summer is natural. But expectancy shouldn’t distort the very logical fact that moving from one style of play – the Gareth Bale-focused football of last season – to something involving more or less a new attack creates a difficult bridge between the two. Villas-Boas may have gotten a few things wrong this season, but there is nothing totally out of hand about the difficulties he’s experiencing in losing his best player and finding other means to winning games.

Villas-Boas apparently has the backing of the board, but that should include a step away from first-team matters and the delegation of full control for the manager, as well as faith that he will improve results.

After all, does Villas-Boas have the tools to successfully deploy a two-man strike force? Tottenham, and many others, haven’t played that way for many years. Not only can it add greater confusion to a team who are trying to find a rhythm, but are Jermain Defoe and Emmanuel Adebayor really the answers to bringing immediate results? One is reportedly off in January, while the other was banished to the reserves with the implication that he’d never play for the first team again. Not exactly the most ideal players for what the hierarchy want.

Villas-Boas deserved criticism for his perseverance with inverted wingers. They weren’t bringing results and they weren’t helping Tottenham’s £26 million striker investment to find the net. Aaron Lennon was introduced, finally, on the right-wing against Manchester United and Tottenham’s attack instantly looked far more dangerous. Why not persevere with something that genuinely looks to be productive?

It possibly speaks of the manager’s attitude to do things his way, which isn’t always a bad thing. The situation at Tottenham is bigger than whether to play Lennon on his natural right side or not. It does take time for a large volume of new recruits to find a winning formula, not to mention to acclimatise to the surroundings of an unfamiliar country.

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It’s still early days for a new-look Tottenham. But if Villas-Boas was good enough to help oversee the club’s progression last season, that trust should continue into this season.

I doubt players like Nicklas Bendtner give much worth to a number, just as long as he can show the world how much his wages are each week. For other players and specifically those of particular nationalities, there’s a lot of significance in a squad number.

Lionel Messi was given the no.10 shirt following the departure of Ronaldinho to AC Milan. There’s a lot of weight and responsibility in that number, especially due to it’s reputation in South American football. But clubs like Barcelona were hardly going to give a famous number to a player like Alex Hleb or Martin Montoya.

However, the importance of numbers do work both ways. Clubs want to hand responsibility and the prestige of certain numbers to their best players. At Arsenal, Jack Wilshere was recently given the no.10 after Robin van Persie found more worth in an extremely forgetful number elsewhere, while newcomer Lukas Podolski also chased the Dutchman’s former shirt. But Arsene Wenger’s decision to hand Wilshere the number was symbolic of the faith he has in the player and his position at the club moving forward. His position on the pitch and as a leader for the club.

It’s also not something that’s central to just football players. You’re sure to find players in many other sports who chase a number due to it’s meaning, while others land on a number and never change for the rest of their career. Does it hold worth beyond just being a throwaway gimmick? Sure, and it’s a strange one, yet wholly understandable.

And we can take it a step further and into the world of gaming, where I’m sure serious addicts of FIFA or Football Manager are going to offer their latest signing a respectable number and one in keeping with his talent and importance to the side.

William Gallas looked ridiculous in the no.10 shirt while playing for Arsenal, and not just because of the player who wore the number before him (although it did have something to do with it). But no Arsenal fan will complain at the decision to hand Wilshere the number. Quite simply, defenders have no place in a shirt number that is so regularly associated with one of the key attackers in a team.

No one will ever wear Wayne Gretzky’s no.99 shirt in the NHL again, while Bryce Harper is making the no.34 look increasingly more fashionable in the MLB. The importance of Michael Jordan’s 23 has been transferred to football with David Beckham opting for that number upon his arrival at Real Madrid, yet I’m sure he’d swat away the worthlessness of the number 24.

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Players like to feel comfortable in their numbers, and a classic no.9 striker needs his worth to be made a little more obvious with the correct number of his back. To outsiders, it’s all just sports nonsense, like which shin pad you put on first or the album that has to be played before a game.

One thing is certain, like Gallas at Arsenal, Michael Owen really shouldn’t have worn the no.7 at Manchester United. Again, probably a lot of old nonsense, but certainly not to those who are more used to players like Beckham, Eric Cantona or Cristiano Ronaldo carrying the traditions and importance of the number.

As reported by The Daily Mail, Newcastle United are interested in signing Donis Avdijaj this summer from German side Schalke.

What’s the story?

Newcastle fans are hoping for an exciting summer transfer window, desperate for the club’s decision makers and financial backers to support Rafa Benitez and help them climb the table from their 10th-placed finish in the English Premier League.

One name on the club’s radar is 21-year-old Donis Avdijaj, according to The Daily Mail.

The paper reckon the attacker is set for an exit from the German club this summer, who would be willing to part with him for a knockdown price of £2.5m, with the player having just a year left on his contract.

The report states that Newcastle are joined by Everton in pursuit of the Kosovan international.

Who is he?

Having excelled for Schalke’s youth and reserve side, there has been much excitement about Avdijaj’s potential for a number of years now, with the German club hoping to cultivate his skills with loan moves at Austrian side Sturm Graz and Dutch outfit Roda.

With 17 goals and 13 assists for those clubs in 59 appearances, he has progressed well as a youngster, but has failed to win his way into the Schalke first team to follow in the footsteps of Mesut Ozil and Julian Draxler.

It’s clear though he has potential and perhaps a move to St James’ Park could be the making of him, especially with Rafa Benitez’s track record recently of turning the unexceptional into star talents for the Magpies.

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At the reported £2.5m, it would be a relatively risk free move and is something they should seriously consider this summer.

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There’s nothing you can say about Arsenal that hasn’t already been said, and nothing you can prescribe that hasn’t already been prescribed.

Arsene Wenger has played to the same formula for years, and when it comes to the Gunners’ performance, where they fall short can be traced back to the same old areas as before.

This season, though a new dimension looks to have been added to the Gunners’ woes, their startlingly bad away form is really just another manifestation of an old lack of fight and robustness. It’s something we see season after season in other forms, but this year, it’s surfaced in away games and left Arsene Wenger’s side in fifth again.

All is not lost, of course. Arsenal are through to an EFL Cup semi-final as well as the knockout stages of the Europa League, and winning both competitions could serve as a springboard for future success in the same way that Manchester United’s capture of both trophies last season seemed to herald a new dawn for Jose Mourinho’s side before the Portuguese manager’s negative tactics seemed to blow that chance.

For the Gunners, though, rather than a milestone in the fight back to the top of the premium competitions, where they’ve belonged for so many years, these second tier trophies instead feel like yet another low watermark on the way down. Whereas settling for a top four place was the problem of the decade before this one, will the new year bring confirmation that Arsenal are now the fifth-placed Premier League club who will spend the next few years competing in trophies Arsene Wenger always thought were beneath him?

There is still a chance at the United style fightback, and two shiny new trophies don’t look unobtainable. When you get to the semi-final of a competition you’ve never won before in over 20 years of management in England, you’d like to think that Wenger will finally be up for the League Cup. And when you’re in the second tier competition which yields not just a medal, but an automatic place in the Champions League group stage for next season, you’d also like to think that it means something to the Gunners.

But with Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil seemingly heading closer and closer to the exit door – perhaps as soon as next month – and with little chance of replacing players of that quality in the January window at least, you get the feeling that this season is the latest in a long line of write-offs at the Emirates, where Arsenal’s season may well have a different feel, but the same old outcomes.

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That means 2018 will probably not be a year in which Arsene Wenger can sign off as Arsenal manager on the back of a grand old victory to live on through the ages. He may never be able to do that at all, in fact. But instead, he must allow his job to become one of instilling a sense of positivity at the club for the first time in years, and leave Arsenal at some point soon with some genuine hope that the future is bright. The Gunners will likely start 2018 still looking feeling like they’re in decline. They must end it by feeling back where they belong.

Arsenal’s vulnerability has reached near-critical level at this point of the summer. Real Madrid played Arsenal like the high-spending, big market veteran that it is. The La Liga club called Arsenal’s bluff on the Gonzalo Higuain deal and ended up selling the Argentine striker to Napoli. It’s what you get when you’re new to this sort of game and other clubs are well aware of your apparent intentions and ability to spend.

But how much of Arsenal’s need to appease its fan base has distorted the real bargains out on the market?

Monaco, amid huge signings of intent in bringing the Porto band back together in Joao Moutinho, James Rodriguez and Radamel Falcao (as well as Ricardo Carvalho), have also been surprisingly astute, picking up Jeremy Toulalan from cash-strapped Malaga for €5million. It’s not really prudence if it’s an unbelievable deal for a very good and experienced international. The question is where were Arsenal before the deal went through?

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It’s further proof that some of the best players don’t always demand inflated fees. Is Toulalan not a player Arsenal need? There can be no discussion as to whether he’d be a signing of necessity. A player in his mould and of his calibre as a defensive midfielder is absolutely necessary. A hitch may be with his age at 29, not being too much younger than Mikel Arteta, but issues like that shouldn’t matter when bargains are waiting to be cherry picked. There’s no doubt the Frenchman would have made an immediate difference at Arsenal, and maybe this highlights a wider criticism of the club during the summer months.

Even prior to Toulalan’s move to Monaco, it has to be asked where Arsenal were in 2011 when he made the switch from Lyon to Malaga. Would Arsenal have been dealing with a financial giant? Well not really. Malaga signed Toulalan for €12 million and were nothing of the financial power that Monaco and PSG are. Furthermore, the European football on offer at the Emirates over La Rosaleda could have been a deciding factor.

But Arsenal rarely seem to be able to work on multiple transfers at once. The truth is we don’t really know, but that’s the general impression that’s created. I’d love to think that the transfer department at Arsenal is a well-oiled machine working diligently and purposely creating a false mask of ineptitude. But that could be a little out there.

This summer has been so central to finding a world-class striker that there has seemingly been total neglect over other areas of the squad in desperate need of attention. Oh, the club have lodged bids for Marouane Fellaini and Lars Bender, but those resembled passing interest over what is at stake in the striker market. Just like Monaco and its counterparts in the market, Arsenal need to make an impression and names like Bender and to an extent Fellaini will do that. But if they’re not there, if all the money in the world can’t prise them from their clubs, players like Toulalan offer an excellent stop-gap until next summer’s window.

Toulalan has the Champions League experience that’s required at Arsenal, as well as the title success garnered from his days with Lyon. He aided in Ignacio Camacho’s development last season, something that could be used in Aaron Ramsey’s redefining as a deep-lying playmaker/holding midfielder. It’s win-win, and for a club who previously boasted of its spending capabilities being in excess of £70 million, a €5 million deal for a player who will add much, much more than just a backup is not something to fret over or pass up.

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Have Arsenal missed a bargain in Jeremy Toulalan this summer?

Join the debate below

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As the season winds down and the transfer window draws into view, fans of all clubs are looking for signs that can hint at their club’s proposed market activity wherever they can find them.

One that has become more common in recent years is the idea that a player who is chosen to model the new kit cannot be among those the manager is seeking to get rid of.

It would appear that Manchester United fans have fully bought into that way of thinking – wishfully or otherwise – regarding the future of popular forward Anthony Martial.

The Frenchman – valued at £58.5m by Transfermarkt – has slipped down the pecking order under Jose Mourinho, especially after the arrival of Alexis Sanchez in January.

But, it is clear that the Reds fanbase want the forward to remain at the club past this summer and we’ve taken a closer look at the best of the reaction…

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Manchester United are “front runners” in the race for Barcelona’s Pedro, according to European football expert Andy Brassell.

The Spaniard only signed a new contract at the Nou Camp a few months ago, but it has emerged in recent weeks that he could leave the club if an interested party offers a release clause-triggering £22m.

This has led to links with the likes of Liverpool and Chelsea, but United have entered the battle of late with Louis van Gaal eager to add proven quality to his Red Devils squad.

WANT MORE? >> Man United transfer news | Latest transfer news

And Brassell has told talkSPORT that the North West club are leading the race for the 27-year-old attacker, who has won just about every prize on offer to him at club and international level, including La Liga, the Champions League and the World Cup:

“Manchester United are the front runners to sign Pedro,

“He would move for around £22m. Pedro signed a new contract which substantially brought down his release clause. It was around €150m before.”

Brassell also believes that the deal makes a great deal of sense for the player and the club, with United not necessarily in need of an orthodox centre-forward given their current options and system:

“It makes a lot of sense for him to move to Manchester United with the sort of football Louis van Gaal wants to play.

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“You could have Pedro on the right and Memphis Depay on the left.

“United have been linked with a lot of strikers but, given that Rooney is going to start and Hernandez is on the bench, there is not a lot of point buying another striker.

“They don’t need someone to play with Rooney because that’s not how Van Gaal plays. They need people to play in a 4-3-3 formation.”