London, November 4: Manchester United travel to Stamford Bridge on Sunday (November 5), which is one of the most newfound rivalries in English football. Jose Mourinho typically put Chelsea on the globe during his tenure at the Stamford Bridge, but now it is time for a role reversal.
Chelsea didn’t have the start they would have wished for in this season, they are 9 points below the league leaders.
Manchester United is in second place and trailing Manchester City by 5 points. Mourinho has already spurred the Chelsea boss through his usual mind games.
Mourinho and Conte rivalry started in October 2016. It was the first occasion where Conte’s men met Manchester United led by Jose Mourinho.
It was nothing short of a humiliation for the former Chelsea man as Manchester United was annihilated 4-0 by Chelsea.
Mourinho was so much let down by his team’s shabby performance, he whispered in Conte’s ear: “You don’t celebrate like that for a 4-0, you can do it at 1-0. Otherwise it’s humiliating for us.”
Mourinho has been konown to be a master tactician, but that was a day to forget.
The next meeting between these two came in March 2017. More than the result it was the war of words between both the managers that made the headlines.
When Marcos Alonso was fouled, an angry Conte was seen exchanging a heated argument with Mourinho. Ander Herrera was sent off for two yellow card challenges, which eventually allowed Chelsea to win the match 1-0.
Conte said: “A tactic to kick an opponent ? It’s not football for me.”
The final of the encounters between these two ame on April 16th. Chelsea was heading for a title already, but Manchester United had some unfinished business.
At Old Trafford, Conto-led Chelsea was schooled by Mourinho’s men and the red devils won the match 2-0 much to the misery of Conte.
Conte went on to say that spending money is not always the right strategy to win titles. This was indirectly aimed towards Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola who had spent massively in both the windows.
As Mourinho keeps a track record of these digs, he gave it back to Conte as usual. In July 2017, Conte had made a statement about the fact that Chelsea can’t afford to repeat what Mourinho did with Chelsea and finish in 10th place.
Mourinho didn’t respond to it directly, but gave a reference to Conte’s hair transplant instead. Mourinho responded in his classical fashion, “ I don’t know. I’m not going to lose my hair speaking about Conte.”
In October 2017, Mourinho was at Conte yet again when he remarked that other managers will cry over injuries and it is not his nature to do that.
Conte replied to this by saying Mourinho to mind his own business. Mourinho leads in the cold war battle, now one needs to see who wins the battle on the pitch.