IT was good to see that the Jose-Arsene love-in hasn’t lost any of its zeal during their summer months of separation.

When it turns out that the biggest headlines from the FA Community Shield were made by a missing , it’s a sure sign that the real business of hostilities is not far away.

The Arsenal manager did his own version of ducking and diving to avoid an after-match face-to-face with Jose Mourinho and then went quietly away to celebrate his first win over his old rival, while the Chelsea boss was left to play the wide-eyed innocent – and for once with some justification.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s winning goal became nothing more than a sideshow as two of the biggest names in the game claimed the high ground.

Mourinho accused Wenger of going all defensive and abandoning their usual passing game; Wenger replied by suggesting that the non-handshake had something to do with respect for other people and, in any case, he added: “We abandoned nothing. We defended. Our game is based on togetherness, on solidarity, on defending well and attacking well.”

There is sure to be much more of this sort of thing over the next few months, because Chelsea and Arsenal will be up there with the Manchester clubs chasing the honours.

Mourinho has already said that he is planning to go on managing into his seventies – as long as Alex Ferguson and Bobby Robson – which amounts to another 20 years or so.

Meanwhile, the friendlies season is over, the proper action starts this weekend and managers throughout the country can start worrying about their jobs rather than whose handshake they can ignore.

ROYAL Ascot, the Grand National and now Wembley have something in common – Ladies Day.

A crowd of 30,000-plus turned up for the first Women’s FA Cup final to be staged at the stadium on Saturday to see Chelsea lift the trophy with a 1-0 win over Notts County.

England’s World Cup run in Canada has had a knock-on effect, with much higher profile, a boom in attendances at WSL level and a growing list of recognisable names.

And there was no lack of respect or non-handshake stories to come out of Saturday’s final either.

IF Sebastian Coe thought that securing the 2012 Olympics for London was tough then maybe he should have second thoughts about his next challenge – president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) for which he is a front runner.

Just when you thought it was safe to start taking athletics seriously again, another investigation comes up with damaging claims relating to substance abuse.

The allegations are that hundreds of top athletes returned suspicious blood test results and a third of medals for endurance events in the World Championships and Olympics were 'won' by names on that list.

Lack of action by the IAAF, suggestions of a cloak of secrecy to hide the facts spread over 11 years and involving 55 gold medal winners, would normally be enough to condemn athletics to the waste bin of sport.

Meanwhile, of course, there are the usual official lines and one of them – from Lord Coe himself – doesn’t sound like it comes from somebody up for the fight..

“I know the IAAF takes these allegation seriously and it will issue a robust and detailed response to them and continue to work closely with the World Anti-Doping Agency.”

If elected to the presidency, he will need a lot more than vague promises to make athletics a sport we can trust again.