A few seconds after the final whistle confirmed a 4-0 win for Chelsea on Sunday, Jose Mourinho darted across to Antonio Conte's territory and appeared to engage the Italian in an intense monologue. Later, it was revealed that the Portuguese had taken umbrage at the way the Italian had tried to further increase the spirit of the crowd following N'Golo Kante's goal.
“You do that when you are 1-0 up, not 4-0 up,” he had told Conte according to Sky Italia. Mourinho wasn't done. He had apparently suggested that Conte was trying to humiliate the former manager in front of fans who sang his name till late last year.
Now, hypocrites are present in most walks of life but Mourinho's charge is amusing to say the least. Even if Conte was trying to disrespect his opposite number for the day (the former Juventus man has come out and said he was just trying to generate a positive atmosphere inside Stamford Bridge), Mourinho has a Ph.D in that particular field.
You are talking about a manager who is known for shaking hands of opposing managers and walking down the tunnel even before the final whistle. You are talking about a manager who has done knee slides in front of opposing managers after knocking them out of Europe.
You are talking about a manager who has poked people in the eye immediately after a game. You are talking about a manager who tried to prevent a club doctor from running on the pitch to treat an injured player. You are basically talking about a manager who might have as well written the book on 'On how to behave ugly and win while inside a football stadium'.
But there is a school of thought which puts forth the theory that Mourinho conducted his whole exchange in the full glare of the media to deflect attention from what went down in the previous 90 minutes.
Mourinho has previously done that to devastating effect and he needed that piece of public theatre to make the headlines on Monday morning. He was partly successful with his ruse. However, on Wednesday, he really needs to win the Manchester Derby at Old Trafford.
No amount of dugout trickery will be able to rescue his team from being cast front and centre irrespective of the result. It may only be the EFL Cup but the former Real Madrid manager already needs a statement win.
And a statement performance from the likes of Paul Pogba (whose heat map against the Blues may have well showed 'Not Found' as one Twitter user suggested tongue- in-cheek) and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, whose form has plummeted since the early weeks of the campaign. Normally, the big-hitters will have a day off but this is already his biggest match of the season so far. Lose and he would have lost to Pep Guardiola's side twice in two months.
Even otherwise, he likes to win the League Cup to show who is the boss (his first win at Chelsea was the League Cup) so a loss could have a debilitating effect as the season goes heads into November. There is also the unique opportunity in the sense that a win will condemn Guardiola's men to six matches without a win.
A sentence Guardiola has never read before coming to Manchester. Mourinho has been a serial winner since his Porto days but the next few months will offer evidence as to whether his methods – siege mentality, handling of youngsters to see whether they are cut out for the biggest stage and an uncompromising approach when it comes to winning a game – is becoming obsolete thanks to the likes of Guardiola, Conte and Jurgen Klopp.
He has already faced the above three managers this season and his record makes for poor reading (P: 3, W: 0, L: 2, D: 1, GF: 1, GA: 6, GD: -5). Any result apart from a win will increase the white noise surrounding Mourinho. And that's something he doesn't need right now. Live on Ten 1 HD, 12.30 am on Thursday morning IST. Three pressure points Curious case of Henrikh Mkhitaryan: The Armenian had no idea why he was left out of the clash against Fenerbahce.
The punishment to that claim was Mourinho ignored him once again, this time for the clash against Chelsea. One of last season's best players in the Bundesliga can't get a minute for the club struggling to make an impact in the Premier League. If he is ignored on Wednesday, expect more uneasy conspiracy theories to be leaked.
Form of the A-listers: His squad may have some of the best footballers right now but they are looking like a bunch of blokes who won the raffle to play for Man United. One win in five Premier League matches is a poor return and the big stars need to show their manager they are worthy of wearing the famous jersey.
Guardiola's reaction: The other side of the coin is to see how Guardiola will react following disappointments over the last two weeks. Questions have been asked about John Stones, Claudio Bravo, his two massive summer acquisitions, while Sergio Aguero is on a mini drought of sorts. A win will go a long way in papering mini cracks.