That will make or break Mourinho’s reign

David De Gea Sergio Romero Eric Bailly Marcos Rojo Paul Pogba Nemanja Matic Scott McTominay Jesse Lingard Alexis Sanchez Romelu Lukaku Marcus Rashford Luke Shaw Chris Smalling Phil Jones Antonio A Valencia Ashley Young Juan Mata Ander Herrera Anthony Martial D Daley Blind M Matteo Darmian M Marouane Fellaini Victor Lindelof When the fire brigade arrived, all that was left to do was put out the embers of the wrecked car. Mourinho was feted by his team-mates as a hero. His spokesperson Eladio Parades confirmed: “Jose says it’s true. The car was on fire and Jose pulled him out. “It wasn’t about a question of pride, he was just glad to have saved his teammate’s life.” That near-death experience involving Mourinho and a friend’s car was just the prelude to another dangerous incident. The next time he came face-to-face with his own mortality was during a trip home to Portugal, 10 years later, when he was on Barcelona’s coaching staff under the late Sir Bobby Robson. He drove all the way and, only a few miles before he reached his home city of Setubal, he had a lapse in concentration and a major crash that left him with facial scars, still visible to this day. Ironically, his heroic life-saving act in pulling De from the burning car is in contrast to the criticism he received. A Spanish journalist said Mourinho is “the type of person who leaves after causing a car crash”, referring to his controversial spell as Real Madrid boss. Mourinho sued the journalist. He has since admitted he doesn’t like driving. And, perhaps, given some perspective, the defeat to Sevilla wasn’t such a car crash after all.