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When this season’s Premier League was billed as the battle of the managers then last weekend’s fixture was probably the first that neutrals looked for.
It was somehow fitting that they locked horns for the first time on English turf rather than in an ultimately-aborted pre-season friendly in Beijing.
While the historic rivalry between these two Manchester clubs has never quite reached the levels of vitriol spouted when the two red halves of the cities joined by the Mersey meet, there had been some suggestions that Mourinho was appointed as a direct response to City recruiting Pep Guardiola given the history between the two.
While it would also be possible to pinpoint previous spats ‘The Special One’ had with Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger and a grudge with Chelsea, it was the first English coming together of two men that regularly did battle with the two largest clubs in Spain that raised the greatest interest.
The history is intriguing. Mourinho has a far superior record having won league titles in four countries while Guardiola has two, each time with the strong favourites.
While they both can point to two Champions League triumphs Mourinho has triumphed with clubs of a smaller size and lower pedigree. However, the Spaniard once coached when the Portuguese was assistant to Bobby Robson at Barcelona undoubtedly has the better head-to-head record.
The Special One does look more like ‘the Translator’ when considering he has won only three of 16 games and concedes a 10 goal deficit.
Saturday was the first time that they have shared a stretch of touchline in three years and they both arrived with perfect league records with their new clubs.
However, while Mourinho divides opinion and has many detractors, there was one other man motivated by ‘hatred and revenge’, Zlatan Ibrahimovic who, in his book, went one further than his new manager by referring to his former boss as a ‘spineless coward’ and refuses to utter his name, preferring to call him ‘the Philosopher’.
It is six years since their acrimonious parting at Barcelona and there is no doubt that the Swede has something to prove to his ‘bald enemy’. Once reprimanded for pretending to fire a gun at Juventus, it was the debutant, Claudio Bravo who was in his cross-hairs and a rifled volley gave him something to smile about.
This match fortunately did not degenerate to the same ill-tempered level as notable El Classicos although perhaps the Premier League’s new regulation protecting the referees has much to do with that. Without it, who knows how tempers would have boiled when Bravo implanted his studs into Wayne Rooney.
There has been a discussion that the Manchester City players have been struggling to get used to new tactics employed by Guardiola that include a greater work-rate and, tactically, an innovative use of his full-backs to swamp the midfield. However, an excellent first-half against West Ham and now another against the Red Devils suggest it is the opposition that take time to adapt.
This was, to use one of football’s greatest clichés, a game of two halves, although having dominated the first 45 minutes it is impossible to know whether the second was a result of Mourinho’s substitutions or the rarely seen pragmatic side to Guardiola protecting a lead.
Another difference could be pinpointed in that Guardiola trusted, in the absence of the banned Sergio Aguero, his young striker, Kelechi Iheanacho, from the start, while the United manager chose only to introduce Marcus Rashford at half-time. It was the former who scored the ultimately decisive goal, remarkably his ninth from only 13 shots, while also adding the assist that led to the excellent Kevin De Bruyne’s opener.
Given the work that each respective manager had to do on arrival then Mourinho need not be too disappointed with the outcome. Refreshingly, he pointed to his own tactical failings and expectations as a major cause for this defeat although the Mourinho of old was not too far behind as he pointed to questionable referee decisions that he believed also cost his side dear.
Guardiola will certainly be the happier of the two and not just because his side claimed the three points.
In the past there has been a belief that City, despite their attacking brilliance, could be easily bullied off the ball and are susceptible to set-pieces. In taking a two-goal lead they showed just how good they can be yet also demonstrated, later in the game, a resilience that saw them hold firm despite Otamendi having his head bandaged and Kolarov losing a tooth.
Ibrahimovic famously suggested that Mourinho lights up the room compared to Guardiola drawing a curtain yet is was his former manager at Barcelona who raised the roof.
This fixture certainly ensured that the first league meeting of the two Glasgow sides paled into insignificance despite efforts from Rangers’ enforcer, Joey Barton, to rile the opposition. In the aftermath of a comfortable 5-1 victory for the Hoops, Celtic captain Scott Brown gleefully declared that is was ‘men against boys’!
Another first for football, which perhaps flew under the radar, occurred on Sunday when two former European Cup winners met in the second tier of a national division. Nottingham Forest, the kings of Europe in 1979 and 1980, and Aston Villa, who hoisted the trophy in 1982, drew 2-2 at Villa Park in the Championship.
