Mourinho enjoys a last laugh over Pep despite butt storm

HIS look was more thunderous than usual but away from the spotlight’s glare, you can bet Jose Mourinho allowed himself a smile. A smile at how Manchester United held on after Marouane Fellaini’s headbutting meltdown. A smile at the resilience he has instilled in a team now unbeaten in the league since October. A smile at how his city rivals, the better team for so much of the game, failed to land a telling blow in the fight for the top four. A smile at how two paths to a Champions League slot are still open. A smile at what lies ahead in the long-term. With the blurring pace of relative youth up top, this was the United of the future. While he had a healthy stash of goals, there was no doubt Zlatan Ibrahimovic was lead in the team’s saddle. Without him, and without Wayne Rooney, the game plan changes dramatically – win control in midfield, go early to Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial. From the moment Rashford zipped past a water-treading Aleksandar Kolarov and onto a Ander Herrera clip, that much was obvious. Little wonder Nicolas Otamendi was not averse to trying to strangle, legally or illegally, the threat at source. Referee Martin Atkinson was at his most lenient, or most unobservant, when Otamendi collared Rashford pretty early on, not that the awkward fall hobbled the teenager. In one first-half cameo, Rashford gave Otamendi a five-yard start and was beyond him in 20. In another, he flicked a ball over Otamendi’s head and disappeared before the defender had even thought about turning. It was an obvious mismatch but Vincent Kompany, in particular, was alive to it. Defensively, the first half was pretty accomplished at both ends, apart from some customary comic antics from Claudio Bravo, who went off injured in the second half. He bizarrely palmed a Martial cross straight to Henrikh Mkhitaryan. Ironically, it at least gave him the chance to make one of his better – one of his few – saves of the season. In a fast-paced but error-littered first half, it was David de Gea who was more alarmed than Bravo. He watched Sergio Aguero hit a post and then denied him with an athletic save. Kolarov also kept De Gea stretching as City began to assert a measure of territorial control that never threatened to turn into dominance. For a third time, Rashford showed Otamendi a clean heels. For once, the defender recovered. Rashford incurred Mourinho’s wrath when he opted out of a possible collision with Kevin de Bruyne, but he was the only one to shirk a challenge here. There was never any chance of Herrera shirking, although after a ruck with Yaya Toure, his composure did not return in time to head an inviting free-kick goalwards. It was a rare chance in a game characterised by physical commitment. The likes of Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sane struggled to synch mind and whirring limbs. With calmness also deserting De Bruyne and Aguero, both snatching at good chances, stalemate beckoned and arrived but not before Fellaini, about to get a second yellow anyway, nutted Aguero. It gave the 10 men 10 minutes to survive and survive they did, although there was an injury-time scare when Gabriel Jesus had the ball in the net but was offside. Pep and Jose shook hands yet while the look may not have betrayed it, we knew which one was the happier.