Manchester City delivered their first win in a rivalry with Manchester United that will eventually become a topic amongst football lovers as Manchester City won against Manchester United at Old Trafford.
Barcelona and Real Madrid in Spain’s La Liga was the last time both managers clashed, this being their first ever Premier League meeting since in control on either side of Manchester.
And when the action started, it was Man City who brought down and put Manchester United in their place with a fantastic 100% start this season.
Guardiola wins battle with Mourinho
This was a match between Guardiola and Mourinho – this was a match about Mourinho against Guardiola in this season Premier League, fighting for respect and supremacy in Manchester.
Mourinho as usual refused to blame his selection, but instead blamed referee Mark Clattenburg for not awarding two second half penalties when City keeper Claudio Bravo’s fouled Wayne Rooney and Nicolas Otamendi’s handball.
Jose Mourinho’s decision to play Henrikh Mkhitaryan on the right after his £25m summer move from Borussia Dortmund was a failure – and he admitted some of his players struggled to cope with it.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan was later removed for reshuffling that later saw Jesse Lingard taken off, Marcus Rashford and Ander Herrera came in.
Mourinho’s selection went wrong.
He said:
“I had two or three players in the first half that, if I know what is going to happen, I don’t play them. This is football, though, and sometimes players disappoint managers.
“It’s my fault because I’m the manager and it’s always my fault because it’s my choice.”
Guardiola played Kelechi Iheanacho as replacement for the Sergio Aguero and the 19-year-old responded with his ninth goal in the Premier League.
City, running a total of 119.63km in comparison to United’s 111.34km. Guardiola deserve the full agility from his players.
Does Bravo deserve the No1 Shirt?
Pep Guardiola has invested in Claudio Bravo by paying £17m to bring the 33-year-old Chile international from FC Barcelona.
Bravo has barely had any training sessions with his new team-mates and a debut at Old Trafford is always daunting.
He was too slow to clear with the ball at his feet allowing Zlatan Ibrahimovic to score and give United hope for a equaliser, creating speculation whether Guardiola made the right decision to make him his number one.
