Ryan Giggs will not play in the Carling Cup final against the same team that he broke his arm against on Wednesday night.

Giggs went into a challenge strongly against another Aston Villa player and immediately went down clutching his arm in pain. X-rays later showed the injury to be a break and United’s veteran will not be able to play a part in what would have been his umpteenth final.

This will be very bad news to a United side, which continue their latest spell through the transition of the current team. The news has created a gap for someone to come in and pull all of the strings in the middle of the United midfield.

Manchester United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, said: “In terms of preparing for a European tie, we are pleased to have a free weekend. AC Milan are playing on Friday night. That is the kind of help European teams get from their countries. We don’t get that here.”

“By fortune, we don’t have a game on Saturday because we are out of the FA Cup and we are going to take full advantage of it. The players will have a couple of days off because they have worked hard and we will start again on Saturday.”

United goalkepper, Edwin Van Der Saar, is not worried that Giggs’ injury will affect United’s title push. He added: “There is a little bit of a gap between us but Arsenal are still around. But really, we are not looking to anyone else. We will concentrate on ourselves.”

The reason Giggs being injured will be such a blow to United is because he is the calmest and most experienced player in the side. It is important that Ferguson’s men can find someone else quickly, who will fill in the gap and do the same job that Giggs does every week.

Giggs will also be a big miss for United’s up and coming Champions League bout against AC Milan. The match is sure to be one, which United will need all of their experienced players for.

The Italian giants will not be brushed aside easily and have a number of players who could hurt United. However, Ferguson will see the game as a chance for someone to walk in and make Giggs’ place in the team their own.

The main point is that this is a United side, which have gone through their rough spell of the year and are still fighting on a number of fronts for even more silverware than they can currently lay claim to.

There is enough in the squad for the current Premier League champions to be able to compensate and as soon as Giggs recovers from this injury blow, he will no doubt be instrumental in making sure United see through the progression of the current team.

Giggs is old and experienced enough to know how to deal with this injury and make sure that he comes back stronger from it.

Manchester City’s Billionaires proved too much for the young guns of Arsenal as they blew them away in a three goal second half display.

Goals from Carlos Tevez, Shaun Wright Phillips and Vladimir Weiss scored to set up a mouthwatering Semi Final against local neighbours and Champions United.

The first leg will be played at the City of Manchester stadium on the fourth of January and it looks sure to be a grudge match for the Blue half of Manchester.

After one of the most exciting derbies in history, City will undoubtedly want payback for the 4-3 defeat at Old Trafford after Ferguson’s team scored in the seventh minute of a criminally long extra stoppage time period.

United themselves booked their place in the semis with a victory over

Elsewhere, Portsmouth new boss Avram Grant watched his side lose yet again, this time at the hands of Aston Villa.

Although Pompey went ahead, through a Stilian Petrov own goal, goals form Emile Heskey, James Milner and Stewart Downing silenced the Fratton Park faithful. Veteran Nigerian striker Kanu added a faint hope on 87 minutes

before Ashley Young settled the Villa fans nerves and sent the Midlands club through to the next round.

They will face the winners of the tie of the round in Blackburn, who pulled off a shock penalty shoot out victory out of the hat. New signing Kakuta missed the vital penalty as Chelsea were stunned by the Lancashire side.

The score had been tied at 3-3 before a dramatic penalty shoot out was settled when

THE DRAW

MANCHESTER CITY v MANCHESTER UNITED

BLACKBURN ROVERS v ASTON VILLA

1st Leg matches due to be played week commencing 4th January 2010.

2nd Leg matches due to be played week commencing 18th January 2010.

BOOKIES’ FAVOURITES

The bookmakers have made Manchester United odds on favourites, but if City do manage to beat them then look for a City-Villa final and another possible penalty shoot out between two evenly matched sides.