Peerless Pep provides an object lesson

IN statistical terms, it was football’s equivalent of an irresistible force meeting an immovable object, but by the end it was the visitors, once famously written off by a Manchester United manager as “noisy neighbours”, who had the final and loudest word.

An absorbing if not classic Manchester City victory made them the first team in the history of top-flight football to win a 14th consecutive league game in the same season, ending in the process United’s club record-equalling run of 40 consecutive home matches without defeat. That sequence dated back to Pep Guardiola’s victory in the corresponding fixture last September.

But much has happened to both teams in the intervening 15 months and Jose Mourinho was saying nothing revelatory when he declared before kick-off that both his team and Guardiola’s are better outfits than they were when they last met in the league at Old Trafford.

That fact, which has led to the two rivals occupying the top places in the Premier League, is what gave this derby some added impetus.

For the first time since Sir Alex Ferguson retired to leave those noisy neighbours to it, here was a derby game with the potential for real impact on the Premier League’s title race. Certainly an Old Trafford, which all too often struggles to generate the big-match atmosphere Mourinho calls for, did not need telling twice that this was a game that really, truly mattered, and the visiting support reflected the same.

As the first half wore on, those City fans took great delight in taunting their rivals with chants of “Park

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the bus”, although in defence of United’s defence, they had little option as City refused to give up the ball.

The two managers offered a study in contrasting styles.

Mourinho, at pains to be seen to be on his best behaviour, prowled the technical area, erupting on a couple of occasions at the fourth official when he simply could not help himself.

In stark contrast, Guardiola turned in his usual impression of an Energizer Bunny, a whirling Dervish of energy and emotion on the sideline.

This was one of the Catalan’s finest hours as City manager, not to mention one that places him firmly in the English football record books.

Arsenal won 14 straight top-flight games, but over two separate seasons, while in the history of the professional sport in this country only three other clubs have compiled that sort of commanding sequence – United in 1904-05, Bristol City a season later, and Preston in 1950-51, for those keeping score at home.

All those teams pulled off that run in the second tier of English football, making the achievement of this Guardiola side unparalleled in the game.

That statistic, of course, will not even have registered with the perfectionist in charge of the league leaders. The only number that will matter to him is 11 – the points gap they now boast over United.

The irresistible force triumphed at Old Trafford and City now remain peerless, the Premier League’s new immovable object at the top of the table.