Big two face the moment of truth

ASKED about one Manchester United manager, Pep Guardiola talked about another.

‘I remember when I was a young boy seeing Sir Alex Ferguson winning the English titles,’ said Guardiola yesterday.

‘That’s beautiful and that is what I want to live with my guys. The toughest league (in Europe) is this one. To win the Premier League, to feel that title, will be special.’

As body swerves go, it was a good one. Field a question about Jose Mourinho and answer with a story about Ferguson.

But as the Manchester City manager stands on the precipice of great achievement, Guardiola cannot escape the significance of facing Mourinho’s United at the Etihad Stadium today. Mourinho caused Guardiola much anguish when their careers overlapped in Spain. By the end, Guardiola looked a little broken. ‘ He has won the war,’ he is known to have said.

In England, the renewing of the rivalry was supposed to characterise the narrative of the modern Premier League but if City beat United today they will win the title with six games to spare. It has not been so much a rivalry as a race with only one horse in it. ‘I respect him a lot, Jose,’ said Guardiola with a small sigh. ‘But I have many rivals. I am a big boss. I’ll give you a huge list of my big rivalries. I never beat Mourinho and he never beat me. ‘ Our teams beat the other one’s teams. And we are still in the business and we’ll play 1000 times more. Listen, when I arrived here I understood what it was. But it’s two years now and nothing happened in a special way.

‘So what I want is to win the toughest league by far. This one. Tomorrow if we don’t do it, OK, the next game maybe.’ Of Guardiola’s list of rivals, one was subsequently still to be named yesterday. The Spaniard’s deliberate revelation that the agent Mino Raiola offered him United’s midfielder and record signing Paul Pogba in the January transfer window was as big a hand grenade ever to have been thrown before any derby in recent memory. It will reverberate at kick-off. At City, they will merely relish this opportunity to win. Whether they admit it or not, a sense of inferiority engrained over so many miserable red- stained years has not yet been banished by the two league titles claimed in the nineand-a-half years of Emirati ownership.

Another one today — claimed and celebrated in the presence of the great enemy — would represent another huge step forwards in the struggle for lasting self-worth.

Guardiola may not understand all of that, and why should he?

He has watched footage of the lastminute Sergio Aguero goal that gave City their first Premier League title six years ago and said yesterday that nothing his team do today could eclipse that for drama. He is right, too.

But the Spaniard will not really comprehend the many deep layers of rivalry with United. Peel one way and there will always be another.

They will come today not just to celebrate the beauty of City’s modern football but also to hopefully bear witness to the pale shadow of their great selves that United have become.

Mourinho’s team are second in the league but it doesn’t feel that way. YYesterdaytd ththe UUniteditd manager’s ’ press conference countenance was so downbeat he was all but asked if he was actually OK.

‘It’s because you are not asking me about the match,’ was his reply.

So, about the match. United will attempt to spoil just as they did in running City close before losing 2-1 at Old Trafford last December.

They have had a week of rest while City were humbled at Anfield in the Champions League and it is this extra energy that could give Mourinho the greatest hope of delaying the party.

It could happen. It would be surprising if City, reeling after their Anfield experience, are at their best and Guardiola may rest players ahead of Tuesday’s return with Liverpool.

If Mourinho hopes to get out of east Manchester with his pride intact then there is opportunity to do so.

If not, he will be forced to live through something close to his worst nightmare.

‘Look, I won the title with Chelsea against Manchester United,’ Mourinho said. ‘But it was not the end of the world for Man Utd. It was just football.

‘The only thing I can say is that we want to win.

‘We would like to beat them, we would like Spurs to beat them next week, we would like them to be champions as late as possible.’

Both Manchester teams have improved this season, it’s just that City have improved more, much more. Guardiola’s team have 23 points than this time last year and have scored 28 more league goals. This is the gap that Guardiola and his players have put between themselves and not only history but also the rest of the Premier League. Guardiola said yesterday this triumph will not signal the start of City hegemony but it is hard to agree.

Mourinho will fear he is about to see a Guardiola title celebration at the Etihad as dusk falls tonight. The stark truth is that he may actually be witnessing the start of something very much bigger.

No wonder that nobody is really sure whether he is preparing to stick around in Manchester for long.