José Mourinho is understandably not thrilled by the possibility of turning up at the Etihad to watch Manchester City crowned champions, though he has at least promised to try to win the game rather than setting up defensively for a draw.
Anything other than a City victory would defer the coronation, and a draw may even suit the home side now Tuesday’s Champions League quarter-final second leg against Liverpool has become so important, but Mourinho claims his priority is points to make sure of second place.
“My motivation now is to finish second,” the United manager said. “We have been in that position such a long time we want to make sure we can stay there, so when we go to Manchester City we will try to get three points. If that is not possible, we will try to get one, but we have enough attacking players to try and win. We are not going to go there and offer them the game – our aim will be to compete.”
Mourinho declined to comment on whether the 3-0 defeat at Anfield that has put City’s European progress in jeopardy would have any bearing on the game, insisting that events on Merseyside would make no difference to a Manchester derby. Neither, he pointed out, would City winning the title against United amount to a calamity for his club.
“City are going to be champions because they deserve to be champions,” he said. “You only have to look at the league table to see that, they are ahead by a big number of points; they have made it impossible for everyone else. I think they are going to beat the Chelsea Premier League points record set in 2004-05 [95, in Mourinho’s first season in England. City could theoretically reach 105].
“That doesn’t make life easy for the teams behind them but the moment they become champions I will congratulate them, even if they do it against Manchester United. When Chelsea won the title in 2006 they did it with a 3-0 victory over Manchester United. It can happen in football; it is not the end of the world.”
The competitor in Mourinho clearly cannot resist harking back to the times when he was the bright, young newcomer in the Premier League, even if he has lost a good deal of the charm and wit that used to entertain his audiences back then. Pep Guardiola does not exactly relish the opportunity to wax lyrical in public either and City’s manager does not have the excuse of having to put a brave face on finishing second, though Mourinho, like Jürgen Klopp at Liverpool, is still waiting and hoping for a level scrap in the league. Last season’s title was wrapped early by runaway leaders. This one is set to be the same and it must be all the more galling when one of them is your former club.
“It is not for me to say how good City have been this season; the league table tells you all you need to know,” Mourinho said. “They have been winning games where others have been losing or drawing. Whatever happens in the derby they are obviously going to win the title at some point.
“We would like to beat them to make them wait a little longer and I am sure Tottenham the following week would say the same. That is normal in football, especially when Tottenham, like us, need all the points they can get for a top-four finish.”
