Here's an idea. Turn your back on superannnuated prima donnas that have as much idea about reality as the average fiver year old. Then give ice hockey a try. It's played by low paid atheletes that give their all in every match. They also know how to fight unlike the "handbags at ten paces" mob.

Nigel Sloan, Grimsby, Ontario

Rio Ferdinand and John Terry have proven themselves unworthy of captaining England over and over again. There is only one worthy choice - Steven Gerrard. As for the scrap, it is high time the FA acted with some real force and ban those involved for significant periods of time!

John, London,

Every letter on these pages from United fans shows how rattled they are by Saturday's defeat. Despite their excellent football throughout this season, United's response to any defeat - most recently v Portsmouth and v Chelsea - shows how lacking in class they are when things don't go their way.

Roy Pinney, Weston Super Mare,

Well, still thinking that Ferdinand should be the Capitain of England. Old habits died hard and a leopard will always have it spots no matter how many times it washed itself. If Ferdinand can still claim he has outgrown his past history/habits, don't believe it. It's utter rubbish Mr Cappelo.

Francis Kum, Ipoh, Malaysia

Andy, I believe Edmund is referring to the fact that the press are not admonishing the players and the handling of players by Ferguson. With respect to sporting rhetoric, it does seem at times that there are different rules for different clubs. In this case Manchester Untied should be embarrassed.

Patrick, York, UK

not withstanding the fact that Man U have now lost 5 times and history is now against them for the league title (when did that last happen? It shows that Man U are not the best team in the country regardless of points). This is the team that everyone wants to be considered the best in England?

Leigh Rogers, Bath England, UK

Chelsea may have a top team of players, the richest and most generous owner, but what they do not have is class - no back bone. No other team's ground staff would have behaved in the manner, Chelsea's staff did, shameful and loutish.

Hoss Elm, London,

Calvin, London - according to all the reports the Chelsea groundstaff guy was hit first by Evra, not the other way around. It was the visitor who instigated the trouble and the employee was defending himself.

clivex, Bristol, England

Man U COULD have claimed:
‘OK we were outplayed for 45mins, but had a strong 2nd half. If not for a soft pen for “handball”, 2 goal line clearances & a dodgy offside decision, we’d have won 4-1.’
+ kept the moral highground, given Drogba’s immature antics.
INSTEAD they behaved poorly & lost cred

DP, Salford,

Everyone Does This way. Never scold others. How about ballack pushing and grabbing Ronaldo without even facing the ball. He was showing the back to the ball and grappling ronaldo. how about that. Ronaldo entered the pitch & straight into the corner but
Ballack reacted as if he is having a war.

Andrews Arokiam, Neyveli, India

I hope Capello has changed his mind over his choice of England skipper,neither the Moan U nor Chelsea captains are the right man for the job. We need another man with the dignity and disipline of Bobby Moore - I just hope we can find one!

Brian Wildey, Fleurance, France

For a member of the ground staff to be trowing punches at a visiting team member. He should already have been shown the door.

If someone in any office threw a punch at a visitor to a meeting or something, they'd last all of about 5 minutes before they were sacked. No questions asked.

Calvin, London,

Is it not time to bring these prima donna`s down to earth with a punishment that really hurts. And since money means very little to them when it a fine. How about deducting points from both Chelsea and Manchester and let Arsenal win

Clive, Dartford, Kent

The whole sport becomes more and more repulsive on a weekly basis, which is almost unbelievable given how awful it is already.

It's time to start imposing some serious penalties for the players, managers and fans that become emroiled in these kinds of incidents.

WJB, Brussels,

Black Magic? A team named after the Devil himself should not be preaching about evil.

Neil, Puchong, Malaysia

Man. U. Sour Grapes! However I expect the F.A. to act swiftly and in a just way. It is high time for SAF to realize that he and his team are not above the law.

Kypros Shacolas, Nicosia, Cyprus

Smacks of sour grapes......how can Fergie make the comment that the penalty decision was "diabolical" - if anything the handball was more clear cut then the one awarded to United at the Nou Camp..

As usual Man United and Fergie believe that there should be two sets of rules...come on Chelsea

Hilton Levey, Manchester, England

As if Man U will get any punishment! For some reason nothing has even been done about the charges made against Ferguson after his FA cup rant. United always get biased treatment, usually on the pitch but also off it. What happened to the respect campaign?? Surely united plays should have got booked?

SN, UK,

Edmund, darling. Both incidents are regrettable but nowhere is Fergie said to be personally involved, so why are you having a go at him ? In fact I'm sure the players who were involved have been dealt with severely by him already. Winners dont like losing, but they must learn to do so gracefully.

andy, manchester,

According to the photos, several of the stewards were also black suggesting that the "racist" slant used by Utd in defence of the violent behaviour of its players is again an easy option when trying to justify a loss of control by certain privaliged Premiership footballers.

Paul, Twickenham, UK

When Wenger and his players reacted with anger and dismay to events in their games against Birmingham the Fourth Estate responded by penning pompous lectures admonishing these "foreign" bad. losers: So why the reticence to condemn ManU/Fergie's far worse reaction? Let me guess? He's British!

Edmund Simpson, London, UK

Imagine the xenophobic furore had Arsenal players reacted in similar vein to Ferdinand. The club would have been thrown out of the league. But because our intrepid Fourth Estate daren't criticize the British Alex Ferguson there is a conspicuous absence of pompous moralising this morning. Pathetic!

Edmund Simpson, London, UK

My opinion is that Abramovich is employing Siberian black
magicians to disrupt key personnel in opposing teams (Vidic? Rooney's hip?). This strategy, like all black magic, sometimes backfires (Cech's ongoing disasters). Support Chelsea at the risk of your immortal soul...

John Lewis, Tammisaari, Finland

Ferdinand sounds like the perfect choice to represent the England of today!!

bruce, london, uk