José Mourinho’s team showed fight in victory at West Bromwich Albion despite knowing they have little chance of winning title with City 11 points clearTitle contenders have been dropping like flies in recent weeks, Manchester City’s apparent impregnability at the top of the table acting like one of those light blue insect zappers you sometimes find in chip shops, and the difficulty for everyone else now is how hard to chase when the race already seems won.Antonio Conte admitted defeat some time ago and one can sympathise with the Chelsea coach’s complaint that no one is watching his team any longer, even though they are in a good vein of form and have won eight of their past 10 games....
Manchester United are second in the table, with more goals than many acclaimed champions down the years. But they are suffering in comparison with their rampant neighbours CityWhile all the adventures seem to be happening on the other side of town right now, perhaps a little context is needed and it is worth pointing out that Manchester United have actually accumulated more points at this stage of the season than in six of the 13 championship-winning years when Sir Alex Ferguson was in charge and the Premier League title used to find its way back to Old Trafford like a homing pigeon.José Mourinho’s team are six points better off, at the 17-game mark, than the treble-winning side of 1998-99 that...
The fracas at Manchester United was supposedly all about José Mourinho demanding respect but upstartery is a lot of what makes sport greatIs there a more elastic concept in modern football than “respect”? There certainly isn’t a more self-regardingly irritating one. Endlessly demanded, its absence or insufficiency endlessly condemned, “respect” is mostly a ball game for people too insecure to settle things with a ball game.Various instances of disrespect are held to have been committed at Old Trafford on Sunday, both during and in the wake of Manchester United’s defeat to Manchester City. By way of recap: there was some loud music, some milk, some pinching and scratching, and the Daily Mail surreptitiously repurposed its biannual Alma Tunnel graphic for...
Manchester City were vulnerable at times at Old Trafford but their hosts never looked like taking advantage due to tactics that do not fit with Manchester United’s stature or attacking heritageAbout 10 minutes before half-time, the plea went up around Old Trafford: “Attack! Attack! Attack!” It’s a chant that dates back to the 1960s. It was heard, for instance, at Wembley in 1968 when Manchester United beat Benfica to win the European Cup as fans revelled in the refusal of Matt Busby’s side to rest on a 1-0 lead even in a game so freighted with emotion and importance. By Louis van Gaal’s time, the chant had taken on a different tone: something between mockery of an approach based on...
Manchester United have pressed aggressively in recent matches and Pep Guardiola’s Premier League leaders could find the seams in their defence coming apart in Sunday’s Old Trafford derbyIt may go right, it may go wrong. But this is the one – this is the one we’ve waited for. And not before time either. A year and a half into the most dizzily trailed clash of managerial personalities since the brown-suited white heat of Don Revie versus Brian Clough, Sunday’s Manchester derby may finally dish up a contest to justify the extended trails.When Pep Guardiola arrived in Manchester two summers ago the level of expectation was understandable. In a league already obsessed with the José Mourinho toxic personality cult and hooked...