Pep Guardiola taunts Jose Mourinho as Manchester City bid to seal Premier League title against United on Saturday
Etihad chief says he knows how massive it would be for his team to lift the crown in the derby - and clinch it with a record six games to spare
PEP GUARDIOLA taunted old rival Jose Mourinho, claiming: ‘Winning the title against you will be our Special Won’.
The Manchester City boss is poised to lift his first Premier League crown with victory over Mourinho’s United on Saturday night.
That would also make them the quickest to the title — beating United’s record by doing so with six games to spare instead of five.
Saturday’s date, April 7, would be the earliest in the year any side has bagged the trophy.
And Pep made it clear he is up for it, declaring: “I know what it would mean — it would be like Barca winning the title at Madrid or Real winning at Barca.
“I know what it will mean. It would be special.
“We are closer than ever. But if we are not able to win, we still have six more chances.”
Skipper Vincent Kompany also knows just how special it would be to beat the Special One and pick up the title in a Manc derby in front of the City fans at the Etihad.
PEP OFF Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola reveals he feared the sack after Everton humiliation last season
The Belgian defender, 31, who already has two Prem titles to his name, added: “It would mean the world to us.
“I’ve been in Manchester long enough to know what it will mean to them as well as to us. It could be spicy. It could be lively. I don’t mind.”
First up for City is Wednesday night’s return to Merseyside and the first leg of their quarter-final Champions League clash with Liverpool.
Kompany wants that game to give him and his players extra momentum for that Premier League crunch clash.
He said: “United will have had seven days to prepare for the game with us.
“So we need to be going into it with a good feeling coming away from Anfield.”
Team-mate Leroy Sane — who scored the opener at Goodison — added: “It’s always difficult after an international break because everyone was away.
“We didn’t have a chance to train together much because of the travel and we had a really good game today.
“Liverpool are a good Champions League team and we know what we have to do and I think it will be a really good game on Wednesday.”
Gabriel Jesus and Raheem Sterling also scored first-half goals that gave Guardiola his 50th Prem win in 69 games.
The only manager to hit that mark faster happens to be Mourinho — who achieved the feat in 63 games.
The Catalan coach also registered his first win over Everton as City became only the third team to beat every Prem opponent in a single season.
He said: “After three weeks without a game we didn’t know how we will react.
“The first half was so, so good. Even the second half was good as well. We were solid. We controlled the game and we played very well especially in the first half.
“We found spaces, we were clinical and everybody committed to win that game.
“Now in one more game we can be champions — but first there is Liverpool.
“I understand people are going to talk about United but now all the decisions are about Liverpool.
“We have to focus on the Champions League. We have United in the middle but for the line-up we have to think about the Champions League.”
As Liverpool boss Klopp and United counterpart Mourinho prepare their bids to stop the Blue Moon rising, Sam Allardyce had a word of advice.
The Toffees manager was disappointed that Jesus scored City’s second goal ten seconds after Yannick Bolasie missed from ten yards with a header.
And he reckons City’s rivals should try turning to the dark arts . . .
Big Sam was only half- joking as he said: “Talk about a turnaround in the space of a minute.
“Missing that chance and them scoring was really crushing for us. If we had scored it would have been 1–1 and put us back in the game but we didn’t do our job properly.
“If you can’t mark ’em then foul ’em. We all know as professionals what we’re talking about, there are good fouls and bad fouls.
“Manchester City are a top quality team, you have to admire a team that — especially in the first half — were too good for you.
“As much as the lads tried it was something we couldn’t cope with.
“The real turning point was when we should have scored with Bolasie and gone 1-1 and then they scored.
“I thought Silva was offside for one of the goals but what can you do? We fought, battled, scored and tried to go until the very end.
“All their 11 are fantastic in that system and that’s why they are so far ahead.”