Manchester United denied Manchester City from being crowned the Premier League champions in the derby with a stunning come-from-behind 3-2 victory at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday.
The hosts had led 2-0 at half-time through goals from Vincent Kompany and Ilkay Gundogan and were on course to be crowned the champions of England.
However, Paul Pogba produced two goals in the space of 97 seconds in the opening 10 minutes of the second half before Chris Smalling volleyed home a derby winner.
The result means that even if Manchester City were to win at Wembley Stadium against Tottenham Hotspur next weekend they wouldn’t even be crowned 2017-18 Premier League champions on the day.
Victory for us next Sunday at home to West Bromwich Albion would at least delay their title celebrations for a further week.
As the two managers shook hands at full-time, Jose Mourinho whispered something into Pep Guardiola’s ear. The boss confirmed after the game what he said to his counterpart, telling MUTV:
“I told him congratulations because they deserve the title. Of course they’re frustrated because they wanted to do it today but I congratulate them because they are going to win it and deservedly so.
“They have more points than the other teams and they gave no chance to the others. I keep saying we have had a better season than last season, more victories, more goals, more points, less goals conceded, everything has been better for us but it was not enough because of the season they have had when they have not stopped winning.
“But we are not the team that people think we are – we are not as bad as people think we are, I’m not such a bad manager as people think I am, the players are not so bad as people think they are and that’s what we are going to try to prove by showing we are the second best team in the country, but for that we need the points.”
Manchester City now have a 13-point lead at the top of the Premier League table with six games to go, whilst we have opened up a four point lead between us and Liverpool, with us having a game in hand. We now only need seven points from our six remaining fixtures to guarantee Champions League football again next season.
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