Manchester United have hope of winning Premier League next season after beating City… because Pep Guardiola isn’t all that
Jose Mourinho's men turned on such a good second half at the Etihad - and the City chief is so unwilling to compromise his attacking ideals - that rivals could finish above them next term
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AS soon as Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany headed in City’s first goal during the Manchester derby last weekend, there was an inevitability and acceptance to how United would perform for the remainder of the half.
We’d seen it too many times before.
The second goal by Ilkay Gundogan duly followed, and more were expected, and when both teams went in at half-time, it felt like the beginning of a collapse and the start of City’s procession towards finally being crowned Premier League champions.
As United supporters watched on from the away end, it looked like they were on the brink of a nightmare.
The only surprise was that United managed to get in at half-time just the two goals behind, and even the most ardent Red couldn’t have predicted how the second half would turn so dramatically and deservedly in United’s favour.
United rode their luck after the break as well and if Gundogan’s shot had clipped the inside of the post and gone in, rather than the outside and wide, then we might well have been talking about one of Jose Mourinho’s most humiliating afternoons as a manager.
Instead, United stood up to City and went blow for blow. There was a kind of ‘if you attack us, we’ll attack you’ mentality, something we were used to seeing under Sir Alex Ferguson – and guess what? It worked.
Whether it was the game, time of season, league position or whatever, United played with a freedom and intensity that we’ve rarely seen against the bigger teams under Mourinho’s leadership.
For City - it was the second in a run of three defeats and sandwiched in between a 5-1 aggregate hammering by Liverpool in the quarter-final of the Champions League.
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But, it’s more than a mini slump, because it highlighted some of City’s shortcomings and provided the chasing pack with optimism ahead of the 2018/19 league campaign.
A lot has been written and said about City and rightly so, they will deservedly go on to win the title. But a lot of it has been exaggerated and as we have seen they are far from the unbeatable side many would have you believe.
Their main concern could be Pep Guardiola, who we know won’t change.
Where Mourinho will do whatever is necessary to steal three points, Guardiola’s stubbornness in sticking with exciting attacking football means that when he gets to the latter stages of European competitions (as we’ve seen with Bayern Munich and City) teams work him out and expose glaring defensive holes.
Sure it worked well enough at Barcelona but at the time he was arguably looking after the greatest collection of players a club side has ever had, alongside Lionel Messi.
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City will be delighted to win the league title, but what they really want is the Champions League.
City’s slump also coincides with Kevin de Bruyne’s dip in form. The Belgian hasn't scored in 12 games, compared to Liverpool’s Mo Salah who has 14 in his last 12 and at what we call the ‘business end’ of the season. Tired? Mentally jaded? Worked out?
All of this won’t be lost on Mourinho, who if as expected can strengthen United defensively and in midfield, then you might just see him remove some of the shackles in the way he did during his title winning season with Real Madrid and allow his team to go blow to blow with City for the entire campaign and not just in a one-off fixture. Roll on next season.