Tottenham play Manchester United in the Premier League on Sunday. The head coaches of the two teams – Jose Mourinho and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer – have recently embarked on a war of words.
Former Manchester United, and current Tottenham, manager Jose Mourinho has replied to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s ‘trophy’ comments. Solskjaer, who replaced Mourinho in the Old Trafford hot seat, argued recently that trophies could act as an ‘ego thing’ for managers. However, the Spurs boss has replied to his counterpart by claiming that his mentor, Sir Alex Ferguson, would disagree with his take.
I’m pretty sure that his big boss, Sir Alex, has a different opinion about it.
Mourinho said in his pre-match conference.
But I respect what Solskjaer thinks. I think differently. Freedom of thinking, freedom of ideas. If that’s the way he thinks, that’s fine for me. It’s not a problem for me. It’s not being disrespectful for everyone. But I believe that, I repeat, his big boss, the biggest of Premier League history, has a different view in relation to that.
Meanwhile, Solskjaer also earned the ire of Mourinho by claiming that his side was conned into a red card when the two sides met earlier this season. Manchester United had Anthony Martial sent off when they played Spurs at Old Trafford, which in turn proved to be the catalyst for a humiliating loss.
United were beaten 6-1 by Spurs that night, but Solskjaer claims that his team has learned from that display and will put in a better one on Sunday.
We got conned into a red card, and that’s something that we have to be aware of.
We can’t react like this because we know in games there’ll be situations where we’ll be wound up. We’ve learned a lot from that and I’m sure we’ll have a better performance this time around.
We gave ourselves a difficult game by having 10 men. The way and the manner we lost is not ourselves and we know that.
said Solskjaer.
However, Manchester United and Tottenham’s trajectories have gone in the opposite direction since that fateful meeting earlier in the season. United recovered from a poor start to the campaign and are currently second in the league. Spurs, meanwhile, are only sixth after a string of poor performances. The North London outfit seemed favourites to win the title early on in the season but are currently facing a fight to even qualify for the 2021/22 UEFA Champions League.
Spurs were held to a 2-2 draw by a relegation-threatened Newcastle United last week. The Magpies went ahead in the game thanks to Joelinton, only to concede twice in quick succession. Harry Kane scored both goals to take his tally for the season to 19. Nonetheless, Mourinho’s men surrendered their advantage late on into the match, as Arsenal loanee Joe Willock equalized for the Magpies.
Manchester United, on the other hand, came from behind to beat Brighton in their last Premier League fixture. The Red Devils fell behind to an early goal scored by their former player, Danny Welbeck. However, they continued to mount pressure on the Seagulls and scored the equalizer in the second half through Marcus Rashford. Young attacker Mason Greenwood netted the winner later on, as he headed the ball past a scrambling Robert Sanchez in goal.
The respective results last weekend left Spurs sixth and United second in the table. Despite the outcome of their match on Sunday, the Red Devils will remain second. However, Mourinho’s team could finish the game-week as fourth, should other results also go their way.
