Jose Mourinho looking to delay Manchester City's title celebrations

It's an age-old rivalry, a clash between teams at the very summit of the English Premier League table, and, indeed more a battle for bragging rights than three points. The tiki-taka style of Pep Guardiola versus the pragmatic Jose Mourinho, it's a clash of contradictory footballing philosophies and it certainly doesn't get bigger than this.

Manchester City have been in imperious form all season, having played 31 games and amassed a whopping 84 points, winning 27 and losing just 1 game so far. Manchester United go into this fixture facing the haunting possibility of Pep Guardiola's men doing the unthinkable, clinching the Premier League title in full glare of the United faithful.

The war to clinch the Premier League title is certainly over, with Manchester City ironically needing just 3 points to mathematically hoist the trophy. United naturally would be looking to crash the party.

Last time out it ended in City's favour, 1-2

Last time the sides met in December, City clinched bragging rights in a game that ended 2-1 in their favour. It was a brutal affair and talk of a clash in the dressing room between the sides after the game dominated the post-match chatter.

The City post-match celebrations were seemingly loud according to reports, and Jose reportedly walked into the away dressing room and demanded the Cityzens 'show some respect'.

A shouting match ensued between the Portuguese gaffer and his compatriot Ederson which culminated in milk, water and an empty bottle tossed at the United manager, Mikel Arteta suffering a cut, and twenty players and staff joining the melee as Police (assigned outside the referees' room) looked on in disbelief. Following a review of the incident, the FA decided to take no further action.

FA statement on tunnel incident after Sunday 10 December’s Manchester derby: Following a review of the evidence provided by the clubs and independent eyewitnesses The FA will be taking no formal action.

— FA Spokesperson (@FAspokesperson) December 21, 2017

This derby is sandwiched between two legs of City's UCL quarter-final clash with Liverpool. Guardiola reportedly prioritised the UCL encounters and has opted to field a weakened City eleven against Manchester United. With City losing 3-0 to Liverpool in the first leg of the UCL clash, there looks to be no alternative to prioritising the 2nd leg.

United go into this encounter in fine form, the blip against Sevilla in the UEFA Champions League round of 16 being the exception. In the last couple of encounters for the Red Devils, they have beaten Chelsea and Liverpool, qualified for the FA Cup semi-finals and beaten Swansea 2-0 in their last game.

Rashford scored a brace against Liverpool

The Red Devils have no new injury concerns for this encounter, with Daley Blind and Sergio Romero being the only ones still out with injuries. Jose has confirmed Phil Jones and Marcos Rojo should be in contention for a spot in the starting XI.

Guardiola goes into this encounter with the tough choices of fielding a weakened team as planned and risking a demoralising loss to their bitter rivals, or sending out a strong eleven and potentially getting a morale-boosting win against bitter rivals as his team plans to overturn the 3 goal deficit suffered at the hands of Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool next week.

Pep Guardiola needs to take a bold decision

The Special One's instruction to his players will be crystal clear, 'disrupt City's celebrations' for at least a week or two. A win for United will leave City needing 6 points to clinch the title, a draw will leave them needing just a win.

The Cityzens would relish a victory over their bitter rivals to clinch the title, and the United faithful would love to see Jose's men spoil the party and banish haunting thoughts of City celebrating a title win against Manchester United.