Pogba’s red mist will not cast a shadow over De Gea’s brilliance and Jose’s statement of title intent

AS statement performances go, this was up there with some of Jose Mourinho’s most significant. Sorry, as statement results go. To soundly beat an Arsenal team that, arguably, attacked as incessantly as it has attacked for a long time, is a thumping declaration ahead of next weekend’s Manchester derby.

As mightily as City swagger, this Mourinho team will not fade.

Not if they can withstand this sort of pressure, not if they can resist what most would find irresistible.

Not if they can even pull through after the most bizarrely violent moment of madness, or a mistimed challenge as some would have you believe, from a player who had majestically bestrode this epic contest. After his wish on TV yesterday for City to suffer injuries, karma came pretty sharpish for Paul Pogba.

No one wore a more thunderous demeanour than Mourinho after Pogba left his studded impression on Hector Bellerin.

He knows that, against a City side even more attack-minded than this Arsenal one and far more clinical, Pogba is going to be missed sorely.

Mourinho should also be annoyed that Pogba scarred not only his own evening but United’s. Only slightly. There is no escaping the fact that David de Gea, with the reflexes of a Formula One driver and the agility of a gymnast, had an awful lot to do with this