"Arise Sir Ryan Giggs" read a small banner tucked away in one of the quieter corners of Stoke City's thunderous Britannia Stadium.
And the current Knight of Old Trafford will be in no mood to argue after another emphatic demonstration of the class and composure contained within the Premier League's most enduring talent.
Sir Alex Ferguson introduced Giggs after finally tiring of Nani's posturing and lack of end product, and within minutes the gulf between the pretender and ensured Manchester United's superiority counted for something in Saturday's 2-0 win at Stoke.
Giggs showed the man he replaced that football is essentially a simple game made complicated by players like Nani - making two goals by allowing Dimitar Berbatov and John O'Shea to apply the finishing touches to .
And if United's fans were sending a message to those who deliver the honours list to Buckingham Palace, it was nowhere near as resounding as that sent by the champions to those hoping to strip them of their crown.
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The Premier League is already starting to have a familiar look near the top of the table - Chelsea are at the summit after a flawless start and Manchester United and Liverpool are making up ground after an uncertain opening.
But there are still plenty of issues to discuss, both in the and around England's campaign, even though the season is still in its infancy.
We asked for your questions about your team's start to the season and England's World Cup prospects on Facebook and Twitter and have tried to answer many here. Sorry if we have missed yours, but there were just too many to respond to them all.
There will be plenty of other opportunities throughout the season so hopefully everyone will get a chance.
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Sir Alex Ferguson - in an attempt to put the club he disregards as "noisy neighbours" in their place - claims he counts Manchester United's confrontation with Liverpool as the real local derby as opposed to the domestic squabble with Manchester City.
Ferguson's words were just one more swipe in a week liberally sprinkled with . And when won this particular derby the old streetfighter gave the game away.
Amid wild scenes of chaos, joy and despair, Ferguson turned the clock back to 10 April 1993 when a Steve Bruce goal against Sheffield Wednesday effectively won the Scot his first Premier League title.
As Owen's goal hit the back of the net and Manchester , Ferguson was almost lost in ecstasy.
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- but it is tough to imagine any of the lovingly-crafted pained expressions matching those on show at The Reebok.
Bolton fans wore masks of agony for almost the entire duration of where even the relief of Matt Taylor's last-minute penalty and a first home point this season did not spare manager Gary Megson from a chorus of jeering at the final whistle.
And Stoke boss Tony Pulis made an entry of his own when defender Danny Collins temporarily took leave of his senses to hack down Sam Ricketts and squander a victory that was set up by Dave Kitson's splendid goal.
Pulis had recovered his poise slightly and was gentleman enough to check if there were any females present before giving vent to his feelings at his post-match inquest.
He kept it clean with a simple: "Am I disappointed or what?" And he was. And he should have been because Stoke were guilty of wasting an opportunity to add further substance to a promising start to the Premier League campaign.
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There is only one thing worse than being talked about by Sir Alex Ferguson - and that is not being talked about by Sir Alex Ferguson.
Ferguson is the Premier League's most calculating orator when it comes to public pronouncements on the opposition facing Manchester United.
If you are studiously ignored by Ferguson - or even worse if he is nice or complimentary about you - then it is a safe bet he does not regard you as a threat to Old Trafford's continued supremacy.
It is a belief held by many that his frosty, and occasionally pizza-stained, .
So when Ferguson chooses to , then boss Mark Hughes should be flattered as opposed to insulted.
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Liverpool's great European nights at Anfield can - according to managing director Christian Purslow - supply him with a surge of energy on a par with being plugged into the National Grid. This was not one of them.
The particular occasion Purslow had in mind was the , so comparisons with an opening group game against Debrecen, Hungary's first representatives in this phase for 14 years, are unfair.
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This was more power cut than power surge. Even Anfield itself was lacking its usual electricity, with the rare sight of empty seats and a wave of supreme indifference sweeping around Liverpool's supporters at the final whistle.
And yet, for all the failings of a disjointed performance, this was a satisfactory end to a satisfactory week for Liverpool, with Purslow rightly proclaiming the benefits of .
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- but in Carlo Ancelotti he is convinced he has the man to lead Chelsea's march on Madrid.
And if Abramovich was given the choice between climbing a mountain in Tanzania or witnessing John Terry finally reach the highest point in European football, it is a fair bet Chelsea's owner would take a place on the Champions League winners' rostrum in The Bernabeu next May every time.
Ancelotti has proved he has the route map to successfully navigate the hazards of a tournament that has remained , despite Abramovich's mighty chequebook and the odd change of coach along the way.
, Ancelotti also demonstrated a firm grasp of the realities of Champions League combat.
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Sir Alex Ferguson bristled with defiance in the steamy heat of Rome's Stadio Olimpico after Manchester United's Champions League crown had been stripped away unceremoniously by Barcelona on the banks of the Tiber.
Ferguson was respectfully asked by an inquisitor to reaffirm his hunger to return the giant trophy to Old Trafford. The response, which almost came coated in , closed the debate as swiftly as it began.
Manchester United embark on the journey to reclaim the Champions League crown against Besiktas in Turkey on Tuesday - and if Ferguson pulls off the feat it will sit easily alongside his greatest achievements.
Whisper it quietly, but even reaching this season's final might be regarded as a victory of sorts for the old master given the change in European football's landscape since .
Where there is Wayne Rooney there is always hope, but if United can be outmanouevred technically and tactically so completely by Barcelona with the weapon of Cristiano Ronaldo at their disposal, do they have a chance without him?
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Emmanuel Adebayor - in an act of contrition that came too late to spare him the attention of the Football Association - tugged at the heartstrings amid the pandemonium at Eastlands.
He single-handedly slapped lurid headlines on top of a text that should have only told the story of Manchester City's most impressive mission statement since manager Mark Hughes embarked on the Abu Dhabi-backed refit of his squad.
Adebayor's senseless, provocative 90-yard dash to incite Arsenal's supporters after his goal against his former club provided an unsavoury sub-plot to that demonstrated Manchester City's revolution is built on substance as well as finance.
He later apologised publicly for an ill-judged burst of pace and stamina that took him from one elated end of Eastlands to hostile territory at the other, explaining:
Bit lame. And the problem for Adebayor is that the people who do not love him also know how he behaves - and the loveless were easy to track down after he marred a match that crackled from first to last.
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Fabio Capello makes managing England look easy - and he stepped just as comfortably into the hazardous minefield of managing England's World Cup expectations.
Capello swept swiftly into Wembley's media theatre only minutes after England booked a place in South Africa next summer with a performance he ranked as the best of his reign by .
There was no bad news for Capello after an England display that bore all the hallmarks of a team that could make a serious impact in South Africa - except that it was of such high quality that hopes, dreams and hype could now grow out of all proportion. Again.
The question inevitably, and correctly, came and Capello's handling of it was as sure as all the moves he has made in rebuilding a broken England and piecing together a squad that can take genuine optimism with it on the plane to South Africa.
Are England contenders to win the World Cup?
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- the transformation in fortunes since ensured Fabio Capello exuded only rays of sunshine in readiness for their return.
Capello does not do playful, World Cup qualification is too serious for that, but he came as close as he ever will at Arsenal's London Colney traning base as he plots to secure the victory that would confirm England's place in South Africa.
, without ever courting complacency, and was even in bullish enough form to return the fire turned on his team by Croatian counterpart Slaven Bilic as part of a very obvious declaration of psychological warfare.
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Fabio Capello gave the briefest insight into how he will resolve .
England will secure their place in next summer's World Cup after an almost flawless qualifying campaign if they beat Croatia at Wembley on Wednesday night.
Capello, the arch-pragmatist and meticulous planner, will not have been lulled into a false sense of security by England's untroubled progress and only served as a timely reminder of questions still unanswered.
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was a name that barely registered on Chelsea's radar - let alone world football's - until he became the central figure in a landmark Fifa decision that could shape the short-term future at Stamford Bridge.
The 18-year-old winger, who the world governing body has adjudged was induced to breach a contract with Lens to join Chelsea in 2007, is regarded as a promising but hardly indispensable part of coach Carlo Ancelotti's plans.
Swift and with natural goalscoring flair, Kakuta was the Chelsea Academy scholar of the year in 2008, but his recent story has been a series of injuries that have stalled his progress.
He will now be sidelined for another four months as part of Fifa's wide-ranging punishment for his alleged poaching from Lens - most notably .
Chelsea's rivals will see this as a chink in what has been so far this season, and this stranglehold on Ancelotti's transfer plans will provide a most unwelcome handicap as he fashions a new era at Stamford Bridge.
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The transfer window has closed and the final Premier League business has been done until January - so how are those fighting for silverware, solidity or simply survival shaping up?
It was a hectic final day without a late and now managers must go with what they have got and hope they have assembled the quality and depth of squad to flourish until the turn of the year.
We asked for your questions about your team's transfer dealings and any other deadline day debate on Facebook and Twitter and have tried to answer the top 20 here. Sorry if we have missed yours out but there will be plenty of other opportunities throughout the season.
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