In the 1970s heyday of the BBC’s Holiday programme, when foreign countries were still mysterious, the presenters were forever reporting on locations “of contrast.” Turkey: “land of contrasts”. Barbados: “island of contrasts.” New York: “city of contrasts.” You get the idea. Eventually their locust eye would fall on a buffet and all talk of contrast would cease until the next report, but even the great contrast detectives of the seventies would struggle to find much difference between this season’s Chelsea and Manchester United. Foreign-owned, star-packed, formidable but flawed, you could shuffle the teams like Sir Alan shuffles Alpha and Renaissance and not detect any significant changes in strength or quality. Post-game, of course, there’ll be contrast a-plenty, which will spill over into the Premier League holiday season, with nervous luxury villa owners wondering if they’ll be getting the “gutted” Ashley Cole kicking their furniture to splinters or the “Words can’t express how I feel” version of the same player showing his delight in generous tips. The Holiday programme may be gone, but at least it has left a valuable remedy for the shock of defeat – a good buffet should do it.

Ten reasons why Manchester United will win:

1. Manchester United are unbeaten in this season’s Champions League.

2. They have also kept clean sheets in all of their last five games in the competition.

3. No team from London has ever won the Champions League - clubs from the North West account for seven of England’s ten successes.