Matic will start the derby admits Mourinho
JOSE Mourinho insists Nemanja Matic will start for United against City as he questioned Pep Guardiola’s comments over David Silva’s fitness.
Matic missed the Reds’ Champions League win over CSKA Moscow with a muscular injury, having played at Arsenal on Saturday despite not being completely fit.
Silva scored City’s winner against West Ham on Sunday to maintain their eight-point advantage over United at the Premier League summit but missed last night’s Champions League group game against Shakhtar Donetsk.
Mourinho mocked Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger at the weekend for declaring Alexandre Lacazette unavailable for the visit of United on Wednesday, only for the French striker to start the game. On Tuesday night, he stoked up the mind games ahead of the campaign’s first derby.
“You want the truth or what do you want?” Mourinho replied when he was asked for an injury update. “You want the truth. The truth is Eric Bailly no chance for the weekend, Phil Jones a chance, Fellaini a chance, Zlatan a big chance and Matic is injured but will play for sure. I’m telling the truth, he’s injured but will play for sure. Carrick no chance.
“It’s the truth, eh? No stories of Lacazette, David Silva. All the truth.”
United’s win over CSKA Moscow extended their unbeaten home record to 40 matches, matching the club’s 51-year-old record, but Mourinho was not proud of the streak.
“I’m not proud because we had some bad results at home,” he added. “We drew matches which are not good results.
“I’m not playing for records, I don’t want to stay in the books of the history of this club because of the records, I want to stay there because we won the Europa League and was the first time, I want to stay there because we want to do more important things than that, but it’s nice.”