The Warm-Up: Manchester misery musical chairs
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Updated 27/10/2016 at 08:42 GMT
Jack Lang casts his eye over Wednesday night's League Cup action, swoons at a great nutmeg and brings news of Jamie Vardy's taste in candles.
Jose Mourinho, left, and Pep Guardiola are preparing to meet in the EFL Cup
Image credit: PA Sport
THURSDAY’S BIG STORIES
My crisis is bigger than your crisis
After one more night spent flicking through shopping channels in great comfort at a luxury hotel on someone else’s dime, Jose Mourinho was back on work duty on Wednesday night, welcoming (no, actually welcoming) Pep Guardiola to Old Trafford for a EDM Cup match about which neither of them can have been particularly excited.
Mourinho, we must assume, was still feeling the aftershocks of the Chris Smalling defensive earthquake (8.2 on Rick-ter scale) that hit Stamford Bridge on Sunday, reducing United’s confidence to rubble. But the Portuguese put out a strong side – plus Marcos Rojo – and was rewarded with a result that should ease a little of the pressure that had been mounting.
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Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho was stung by the heavy defeat to Chelsea
Image credit: PA Sport
United’s victory shifts the spotlight back on to Mourinho’s great rival, whose City side have now gone six games without a victory.
This, clearly, isn’t a great look for Pep, given the high standards City set in the opening weeks of the season and the kind of money the club spent in the summer. It is the longest winless run of his managerial career to date and will no doubt prompt an inquest, if only within his own restless, perfectionist mind.
And yet, as things stand, City are still pretty much OK. The DFS Cup was never a priority. They can still expect to progress in the Champions League. They remain top of the Premier League.
Guardiola himself remains calm, on the surface at least. If only every crisis was so comfortable, eh, Jose?
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Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho with Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola after the match
Image credit: Reuters
Wednesday night’s alright for fighting
West Ham booked their place in the last eight with a heartening victory over Chelsea, but [opens big book of journalistic platitudes] the match was overshadowed by unseemly clashes in the stands.
The Warm-Up does not know the ins and outs of what happened. It’s likely some innocent parties were caught up in the mess. But it looked like another case of idiots hitting other idiots and while West Ham swiftly released a statement saying they “unreservedly condemn” those responsible, it’s another Olympic Stadium PR disaster in a growing portfolio.
Teams playing other teams
Here are the vital IBM Cup quarter-final fixtures you’re destined to look at and forget within five minutes:
IN OTHER NEWS
Little known fact: after falling in love with the 2011 film Drive, Channel 5 bosses went out and hired director Nicolas Winding Refn to design the set for their League Cup highlights. It went well.
HEROES AND ZEROES
Hero: Philipp Lahm
You expect Douglas Costa and Kingsley Coman to humiliate defenders. But Philipp Lahm popping the ball through a defender’s legs before slamming home a finish? That’s the real quiz.
Zero: David Moyes
No league wins, one clean sheet all season, a misfiring attack and injuries aplenty: yep, it’s fair to say that David Moyes has a bit of a task on his hands at Sunderland.
There’s usually a grim stoicism to the Scot, but he allowed the pressure to get the better of him as Black Cats succumbed to Southampton, swearing at the fourth official and being sent to the stands.
On the field, there was more of the same: Sunderland huffed and puffed but it was Saints new boy Sofiane Boufal who settled the tie with a strike of real beauty. How Moyes must wish one of his players would conjure such a moment every now and then.
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David Moyes was sent to the stand after confronting the fourth official at Southampton
Image credit: PA Sport
HAT TIP
The Players’ Tribune has already published articles written by Jerome Boateng, Francesco Totti, Pelé and Gary Neville. But none has been as absorbing as Christian Fuchs’ piece on Leicester’s stunning title success.
The Austrian informs us that Jamie Vardy owns “big candles”, that Danny Drinkwater is always moaning at his team-mates to talk more, and that Riyad Mahrez is the best winger he has ever faced. Oh, and you’ll find out which Premier League footballer’s feet he offered to kiss last season. Very good.
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Kommt Fuchs zu Coach Klopp nach Liverpool
Image credit: SID
COMING UP
It’s been a busy midweek, but there’s not a great deal to get stuck into on Thursday. The best we can offer is the bottom-of-the-table scrap between Palermo vs Udinese in Serie A, which is at 7.45pm. No, us neither.
Got that Friday feeling? So does Tom Adams, which is fortunate because he’s on Warm-Up duty tomorrow.
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