MANCHESTER DERBY SAME CITY.. DIFFERENT PLANET!
Pep’s men are a class above what Jose can offer
PEP GUARDIOLA and Jose Mourinho may share the same city now – but yesterday the Catalan was on a different planet.
The scoreline of this 171st Manchester derby suggests a tight affair, but the reality is that City could, and should, have won by more.
Apart from a 20-minute spell either side of half time, United were chasing shadows as Guardiola served notice there is a new Special One in town.
Kevin De Bruyne scored one and set up a second for Kelechi Iheanacho with just 35 minutes gone to have 3,000 Blue Mooners dreaming of another ‘Sick Swan’, as City’s 6-1 win at Old Trafford is remembered.
It is to United’s credit that they found an instant response from Zlatan Ibrahimovic, setting up a second half that had everything apart from goals.
Although Mourinho did morph into Sir Alex Ferguson by claiming that his team were undone by referee Mark Clattenburg’s failure to see two “100 per cent” penalties.
Remember, this was a City side without Sergio Aguero.
Vincent Kompany and Ilkay Gundogan are still striving for fitness, while keeper Claudio Bravo and substitute Leroy Sane were making debuts.
But the visitors were still a class apart – and it was only Mourinho’s tactical changes and the determination of his players not to be humiliated that enabled United to launch a late onslaught that could have brought a point.
“We played very well, especially in the first half,” said Guardiola. “They changed their style in the second half, hitting long balls, and they had some chances because they are stronger than us like that.
“The only thing I could have done was give David Silva and Fernandinho some chairs to stand on, but at the back we were very good.
“We created other chances on the counter-attack and when you play Manchester United at Old Trafford, you must take those chances.”
Beaten
It took 78 games before Mourinho suffered a home Premier League defeat as Chelsea boss – but there was no Guardiola back then.
Pep has now beaten Jose in nine of their 17 meetings, losing just three times. There were handshakes before and after – but in between everyone forgot about the two managers.
It took City 15 minutes to make their dominance pay and, ironically, there was something route-one about the opener.
Aleksandar Kolarov pumped the ball forward from close to his own corner flag, Iheanacho beat Eric Bailly to nod on, and De Bruyne nipped in ahead of Daley Blind.
The Belgian glanced towards one corner of David De Gea’s goal before netting in the other.other Mourinho’s response was to order substitutes Marcus Rashford, Juan Mata and Anthony Martial to warm up.
But the Stretford End was stunned when De Bruyne’s low shot bounced off the post and Iheanacho pounced.
The atmosphere changed three minutes before the break when debut-boy Bravo spilled Wayne Rooney’s punt after colliding with John Stones, and Ibrahimovic made a tough chance look easy.
Ibra could have had a hattrick before the break. First he sent a header at Bravo and then Stones cleared his underhit shot off the line.
Challenge
United upped the ante on the restart, with Rashford and Ander Herrera on for Jesse Lingard a nd Henrikh Mkhitaryan.
The home side bombarded the Blues, and Guardiola reacted by sending on Fernando to add more height.
City were fortunate the ref ruled Bravo’s sliding challenge on Rooney was fair game.
And Mourinho also felt that the whistler should have also pointed to the spot when Antonio Valencia’s cross struck Nicolas Otamendi’s elbow.
“We deserved two penalties,” said the United boss.
“We paid for that – and we also paid for our first- half performance”