The hero lies in Mou: Premier League hopes hang on Jose Mourinho as Manchester United and City do battle

Football’s Prince of Darkness is the man to keep the top flight season alive
A hero comes along | Jose Mourinho
John Dillon9 December 2017

Jose Mourinho, the handsome devil that he is, would rather look the part in that Mask of Zorro outfit worn by Shaktar Donetsk’s manager this week. Wouldn’t he?

It would be apt this weekend, too, if he were to emulate his fellow Portuguese , Paulo Fonseca, who put on the fancy dress to celebrate his team’s Champions League victory against Manchester City.

On the most critical Sunday of the Premier League title race so far, it is Jose who will be riding to the rescue in the derby at Old Trafford.

If his Manchester United side lose, Pep Guardiola’s City will assume an 11-point lead at the top.

This may be it. This may be the day when the league which markets itself as the world’s most competitive is effectively wrapped up. And given the vast Abu Dhabi wealth propping up the club and the way Pep has stamped his imprint on the team so comprehensively now, this could also be the point when they assume command for several years to come.

So Mourinho’s mission, alongside the interests of his own club, is to try to keep the contest alive for the rest of us; even though he won’t see things that way.

Intriguingly, that defeat in the Ukraine threw a spanner in the works of the hype machine which has been oozing so effusively about the brilliance of Pep’s work this season (and, yes, his team have been brilliant).

Leave out a fair chunk of the near half a billion pounds worth of talent they have signed since Guardiola arrived – as they did on Wednesday by making seven changes - and things go wrong. So is this season’s form really about dug-out genius? Or just money? Or a bit of both?

It has become a significant part of the backdrop to this weekend’s collision because City will now return to full strength. And if they are successful, the sceptical will have more evidence to suggest that it is spending power, not magic coaching dust which really matters most of all.

A victory, however, would also mean their 14th consecutive straight league win, which will be a record.

It will be safe then to assume that they will not be letting their advantage slip. And it will also be a fair argument for the pro-Guardiola camp to insist that his highly-refined brand of football has tamed the harum-scarum English game when many said it could never be done.

This was the season when a new Big Seven – with Everton included – were supposed to engage in the most combative and wide-open campaign of them all at the top.

Instead, City are on course to match or beat United’s record Premier League title winning margin of 18 points set in the 1999-2000 season following on from the Red Devils' Treble glory.

Mourinho’s Chelsea led from start to finish in 2014-15. But by this stage, 15 games in, they were ahead of City, under Manuel Pellegrini, by only three points.

Back in 2003-04, Arsenal’s Invincibles, whom Guardiola is hoping to emulate by finishing the league season undefeated, were only in second place, a point behind Chelsea. The contrast with City’s achievements so far is striking.

So now we have a huge irony. Once - more than once, actually - Mourinho has been called the Enemy of Football for all his dark, scheming ways and for his dexterity in shutting down matches to suit his pragmatic winning agenda.

Now he will have a fair amount of neutrals on his side, as well as the supporters of the chasing pack of Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal and Tottenham, for whom City are really out of sight already, anyway.

On weekends like this, the full, grand scope of the Premier League and its epic global appeal are so magnetically apparent.

Photo: Getty Images
Getty Images

Two of the wealthiest clubs in the game clash in their own city, a place rich with the football history each has created - but also at the driving, cutting edge of the way the game has exploded into its modern corporate format.

Two of the most compelling management figures the sport has known draw swords against each other.

Two hugely contrasting styles of play will be at work, with Mourinho’s muscular United side cast as the team which may have to play the percentages to combat City’s opulent game of dexterity and movement even though the match is at Old Trafford.

The absence of the suspended Paul Pogba from the United side will be critical. He, surely, would have been the figure who could have dictated the balance of the game in the home side’s favour. His strength and directness might have been the ideal antidote to the waves of attacks City will hope to unleash.

The fact that he is unavailable is a reminder, of course, that United don’t lag too far behind City in the spending stakes.

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Perhaps that means we should stop worrying too much about whether these coaches are simply buying their success.

Guardiola’s mission is to make City as successful as their riches demand. If that means carrying out a supermarket sweep of the players he feels are best suited to his way of playing, he is merely doing his job and playing by the unbendable rules of its elite, intense level. He is not alone in doing this.

The fact is that we will never be able to judge irrevocably whether these modern managers are innately brilliant or whether they just have the most immense finances at their disposal. Because what they do is a combination of both factors.

That is what leads us to Mourinho versus Guardiola, which isn’t a sub-plot but a collision as big as the game itself.

United need a win more than City. So that may dictate Mourinho’s tactical approach. And he is never afraid to go on the front foot if he judges that the circumstances are right.

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​Guardiola’s side, meanwhile, have won each of their last three league games against Huddersfield, Southampton and West Ham with late goals. That underlines how the strength and depth of their resources as well as their ravenous attacking drive has made them so relentless this season.

He, too, is never afraid. And that is why he will take the game to United, as his side always do, although may be a few smart tweaks here and there.

It means the global game is breathlessly awaiting Mourinho’s response. That, in itself, is a tribute to what City have created this season.

But if The Special One decides to tie them up and pulls off a result in a war of attrition, he will have done his job yet again. And just as much as Guardiola has this season, he will have been true to his own codes and beliefs once more, too. It is utterly fascinating.

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