Pep-Mourinho war: this time it’s for real

AFTER the phony war of their first season in Manchester, the rivalry between Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola will resume for real in Sunday’s seismic der b y showdow n a t Old Trafford.

T h e t w o ma n a g e r s renewed acquaintances ntances at the beginning ng of l a s t s e a s o n a f t e r Mourinho took the reins at Manchester ster United and Guarardiola set up shop op a c r os s town a t Manchester City. y.

G u a r d i o l a claimed first blood, od, leading City to a 2-1 win at Old Trafford ord in September 2016, 6, but both teams fell by the wayside thereafter, af t er, finishing the cam- paign well adrift of Premier League champions Chelsea. Fifteen games into the new season, City are eight points clear of United at the head of the table and Sunday’s game is being billed as Mou Mourinho’s big chance to put a stick i n G u a r d i o l a’s spokes.

“We have a big w e e k , w i t h Swan Swansea and Totte Tottenham followin lowing the United g game,” City m i d f i e l d e r Kev Kevin De Bruyne said. “If we lost t two out of three and they w i n e v e r y - t h i n g , t he y ar are t here.” The arriv- al in Manchester of the two pre-eminent managers of the age stoked the embers of a bitter personal rivalry that had crackled with blistering intensity during the two years they spent in opposing camps in Spain.

Mourinho’s first season at Real Madrid in 2010-11 culminated in a notoriously spiky series of matches against Guardiola’s Barcelona, who would have the last laugh by claiming a La Liga and Champions League double.

Real finished the 2011-12 season as champions and Guardiola, worn out by the constant sniping, stepped down at Camp Nou and would not resurface at Bayern Munich for another year.

The men’s September 2016 reunion promised much, Guardiola’s slick City wiping the floor with United in the first half before a Claudio Bravo blunder enabled Zlatan Ibrahimovic to make a game of it in the second.

But by the time of their most recent meeting, at the Etihad Stadium in April, thoughts of an all-Manchester title shootout had vanished.

A grim 0-0 draw left both teams locked in a battle for fourth as Antonio Conte’s Chelsea streaked towards glory.

City eventually finished third as United trailed home in sixth place, but Mourinho could reflect on the season with greater satisfaction after leading his team to a League Cup and Europa League double.

Seven months on, City look almost transcendent, their sublime and devastatingly effective possession football reminiscent of Guardiola’s great Barcelona team. Having won their last 13 league games, they can set a new mark for successive wins within an English top-flight campaign if they prevail on Sunday.

Recent results, however, give United reason for optimism.

While City have had to grind out wins, needing late goals to see off Feyenoord, Huddersfield Town, Southampton and West Ham United, Mourinho’s counterattacking United team have hit form.

They followed up impressive wins at Watford and Arsenal with a 2-1 defeat of CSKA Moscow that sent them into the Champions League last 16 and have not lost at home since last year’s loss to City – a run of 40 matches.