■ Manchester City v Manchester United, Thursday at 11pm UAE time
It has been one of the defining managerial rivalries in football history, fractious and decisive and exhausting. It was all-consuming in el clasico. As two double Champions League winners renew battle, it is with the stakes both diminished and raised.
Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho meet with a place in the top four at stake and the penalty for failure meaning this may be the biggest Manchester derby since the title decider in 2012.
Purist and pragmatist will never be soul mates, but the Manchester City manager suggested they are not enemies any more.
“When we see each other, we say ‘hi,’” he said, characterising a once-bitter relationship as “good”.
Tellingly, though, he admitted they have not met in Manchester apart from their two derbies.
“We are neighbours, but no,” Guardiola said.
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But this, he suggested, is more about the venue than the opponent. City have fewer wins on their own turf than West Bromwich Albion and just one, versus Arsenal, against anyone in the top seven.
“We have six games left, four at the Etihad, so our qualification for the Champions League depends on our games at home,” Guardiola said.
Win all four and a top-four finish beckons. Doing so, however, entails ending the longest unbeaten run in the Premier League this season, a 23-game sequence that stretches back six months.
“Good rivals; good quality; good form; big series without defeat,” said Guardiola, summing up Manchester United.
It is hard to be as succinct about his own side. He faces late personnel choices. David Silva is "a real, real doubt" with the injury sustained in Sunday's FA Cup semi-final defeat to Arsenal. Sergio Aguero, who was also forced off at Wembley, will be assessed again Thursday. Gabriel Jesus has "no pain at all" but, after missing City's last 13 games with a broken metatarsal, Guardiola is concerned about his lack of match sharpness. Raheem Sterling, who has begun three of the last four matches on the bench, could be back in the starting 11, Guardiola saying his demotion was to accommodate an extra midfielder and not due to "a lack of confidence." Another young English midfielder will not be joining him in the side next season, with Guardiola refuting his old ally Xavi's suggestion he will bid for Tottenham's Dele Alli.
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■ See also: 'Manchester City doesn't want Dele Alli'
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The double Young Player of the Year might command record-breaking fee. As it is, United will be without the sidelined world’s most expensive player Paul Pogba, who was forced off in added time against Burnley while Phil Jones and Chris Smalling, who Mourinho had said would pass themselves fit if they shared his “crazy mentality”, have both declared themselves unavailable to play. Daley Blind, who struggled when City won at Old Trafford in September, will have to continue alongside Eric Bailly at centre-back.
“We go with what we have,” Mourinho said. “We fight with what we have.”
A knockout blow will not be struck in the fight tonight, Mourinho downplaying the significance of victory. “But if they finish third and we finish fourth, they are above us but it means a lot,” he said.
United have won the EFL Cup, and the Europa League provides them a second path into the Champions League. Mourinho could yet end his debut campaign in Manchester with silverware in either hand. Guardiola, who secured 21 major honours with Barcelona and Bayern Munich, will not.
“I have been managing for nine years and this is my first year without a trophy,” he said. “Sometimes it had to happen and it happens now.”
Now Arsene Wenger’s old theory that fourth place represents a trophy has added significance for City. When Mourinho and Guardiola meet, the consequences are always considerable.
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