Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho
London: Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola face off for the second time this season when Manchester United entertain holders Manchester City in the English League Cup fourth round today.
Guardiola’s City took the spoils when he and Mourinho resumed hostilities in September, winning 2-1 at Old Trafford through goals from Kevin De Bruyne and Kelechi Iheanacho.
But City have gone off the boil since, Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Southampton leaving them without a win in five games, while United crashed to a crushing 4-0 defeat at Mourinho’s former club Chelsea.
The Portuguese coach -- who sat helplessly as he endured his worst defeat in the Premier League against the club who sacked him last term -- wants an immediate reaction against city rivals Manchester City in today’s League Cup clash.
Yesterday, he was asked whether the identity of his side’s League Cup opponents would help motivate his hurting players, Mourinho said: “I would prefer to play in the Premier League.
“It’s a bad feeling in the Premier League. With the combination of results, the gap to the top is six points. We’ve had a very difficult period of matches.
“We are really, really sad, but again this is not for kids. This is for men and tomorrow we have to be men and work for the next one.”
Mourinho, whose side have won just once in their past six Premier League games, said he was sanguine about United’s recent results and took succour from the fact they would drop points when they play each other.
They trail the trio of table-toppers Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool by six points. However, their haul of 14 points after nine matches is United’s second worst in their Premier League history -- the team in 2014/15 garnering just 13.
City’s win at United on September 10 formed part of a sequence of six consecutive victories, which suggested Guardiola might find life in England something of a stroll.
But since drawing 3-3 in a frenetic Champions League game at Celtic, the early-season certainty has vanished.
One-sided losses to Tottenham Hotspur and Barcelona sandwiched a 1-1 draw with Everton before Sunday’s stalemate with Southampton, who went ahead after a blunder by City centre-back John Stones.
“It’s important to change our dynamic from the previous games,” Guardiola said.
“Everything influences you. If you can play well or badly, it affects your mentality, so we are working on it.
“We will see tomorrow, after the players’ recovery, then decide if it’s necessary to make rotations or not.”
Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany believes bitter rivals Manchester United have handed his team an advantage by playing down the local derby at Old Trafford.
“It’s just physically impossible for me to play down a derby,” said Kompany, 30. “But the more they say this is the fourth competition, the better it is for us.
City manager Pep Guardiola is looking to end an unusually barren spell by his high standards and following City’s latest disappointment against Southampton he kept his players locked in the dressing room for nearly an hour.
Kompany declined to discuss specifically what was said during the inquest but accepts that the players should shoulder their share of criticism.
“We’re adults, we’re all highly ambitious and we realise that we have to move as a unit and behave as a team and I think anything in the dressing room stays in the dressing room,” he said.
The spotlight will fall on and off the pitch at London Stadium, where West Ham United host cross-town rivals Chelsea.
Police are expected to be on duty inside the ground, which will stage its first London derby, after violent skirmishes involving West Ham fans during recent matches at their new home.
The remaining all-top-flight tie sees Southampton host the Premier League’s bottom club Sunderland, who remain without a league win this season following Saturday’s 1-0 reverse at West Ham.
