Five Things

1. Offside? Surely not…

Nothing was made of this at the time, nor in the ensuing match reports and even Arsene Wenger wasn’t alert enough to pick up that Fulham’s goal against Arsenal - Brande Hangelaand’s close-range effort - should not have stood. Jimmy Bullard was in an offside position when he crossed for the huge Norweigan to score - when Danny Murphy touched the ball to allow the ball to be crossed in, Bullard was on or even a little behind the goal line while only one Arsenal defender was level with him, with Almunia a good few yards off his line. Still, it was almost an impossible decision for the assistant referee to make, and nobody can take the blame away from William Gallas’s inept defending.

2. Spurs’s Falcao watch

Tottenham Hotspur scouts flew to Argentina to watch target Radamel Falcao in action for River Plate. The Colombian international striker has also been monitored by Manchester United but by all accounts was awful in River’s defeat to mid-table Banfield. The 22-year-old would cost around £8m, a cheap replacement for the departed Robbie Keane, and negotiations have been opened. Meanwhile, a move for Diego Forlan looks doomed but Diego Milito could still head to White Hart Lane from Zaragoza. Highly touted, a transfer for around £18-20m is being mooted as Dimitar Berbatov prepares to head to Old Trafford later this week.

3. West Ham heading down the pan

Fit for a screenplay, the plight of West Ham over the last couple of years is almost as pitiful as the relegation that preceeded the new era. From the shock and awe of Carlos Tevez’s arrival alongside Javier Mascherano and new owners threatening to bring Champions League football to Upton Park, West Ham are now little more than a selling club as manager Alan Curbishley is forced to cut the huge wage bill. Anton Ferdinand is the latest to leave, and mid-table mediocrity is seemingly as good as it can get for the Hammers over the next couple of years at least.

4. Argentina, deserved champions; Brazil, a deserved failing

At senior level, Brazil have had the upper hand in recent times against their greatest rivals but at age-restricted levels, Argentina have proved more successful. The Olympics is a case in point. Brazil have still not won the gold medal after being thrashed by their neighbours 3-0 in the semi-final - it’s still the only major medal the nation has yet to win - raising questions about the players’ attitude and the future of the Brazilian national side. While they laboured into the last four - and eventually third place - Argentina were sizzling throughout and fully merited their ultimate victory as they retained the medal earned back in 2004.

While Ronaldinho came to China in order to add to his photo collection, Lionel Messi begged Barcelona to be allowed to participate and was Argentina’s finest performer when the Spanish side finally relented. And their success came despite the height deficit of many of their players (see more here). Instead of this being a problem, however, coach Sergio Batista ensured the Argentinian side played their football almost entirely along the ground, resulting in a technically-outstanding style of football, “We wanted to play with intelligence and move the ball around and not run around so much. We wanted the ball to do the work” commented Batista after beating Nigeria in the final. The ball may have done some of the work, but his brilliant technicians orchestrated its movement throughout the Olympic tournament.

5. Super Cup magic for Manchester United?

The Super Cup, like the Club World Cup, is often sneered upon by English clubs as a meaningless tropy with little prestige attached. Liverpool squeeked past CSKA Moscow in 2005 after extra time while Manchester United lost the one-off match in 1999 to Lazio. With its strange setting - always in Monaco, always played in a tiny 18,000-seater stadium - and timing - on a Friday evening, the only Uefa game ever played on that day, the Super Cup never has the intensity of even a slightly meaningful match and losing the game is rarely regarded as a negative. Still, with Zenit St Petersburg as opponents, Man Utd will be keen to leave France without a red face.