Battle of the Bosses: Jose Mourinho channels Sir Alex spirit

The only way Jose Mourinho would have enjoyed Sunday more was if Eva Carneiro was still on the Chelsea staff... At full time of Manchester United’s comprehensive 2-0 win over the de facto champions he must have felt like ruffling Antonio Conte’s hair. The Italian might soon get his hands on the Premier League trophy, but there’s only one tactical villain in English football.

Indeed, this was Mourinho at his absolute Mourinho. He may not have hid in a laundry basket or poked anyone in the eye, but this was a tale to define him as a coach. He left out two of his best players, with Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Henrikh Mkhitaryan on the bench, adopting a formation and game plan unfamiliar to his players.

And yet everything worked. Channelling the spirit of Sir Alex Ferguson, who once used Phil Jones to mark Cristiano Ronaldo out of a game, Mourinho asked Ander Herrera to shadow Eden Hazard, eliminating the Belgian as a factor. Jesse Lingard turned in one of the best centre forward performances of the season despite having never played as a centre forward before. Everything’s coming up Jose.

“Mathematically it is still possible, even if it is difficult, but we will give it a go,” Arsene Wenger shrugged after Monday night’s 2-1 win at Middlesbrough with all the self-belief of Jeremy Corbyn heading into a snap general election.

Once revered, now nothing but a figure of fun blamed for the demise of a once great institution, Wenger has become the Corbyn of the Premier League. “It's a massive honour to play for Arsenal and you have to give it 100 per cent - week in, week out. Maybe that had been slipping.” A lack of effort in fighting for the cause? An issue for both Arsenal players and Labour MPs.

Conte presumably spent so long trying to decipher Manchester United’s starting line-up before Sunday’s clash at Old Trafford he forgot to set up his own team. Indeed, Mourinho’s side was a bit of a chin scratcher - where were the strikers? Where were the wingers? Where was the formation? Where was Zlatan?

Mourinho insisted afterwards that he’d simply picked the best team for the task at hand, but this was classic Mourinho. Some reasonably surmised that he’d rested some of his best players ahead of Thursday’s Europa League match against Anderlecht, but it might not even have been that. Mourinho just wanted to cause mayhem. Some people just want to watch the world burn...

Shane Long was left rather bemused by Claude Puel’s decision to take him off just minutes after introducing him off the bench. The Southampton manager thought his striker had picked up a hamstring injury when he hadn’t.

Maybe Long put a bit too much effort into stretching out. Perhaps he was playing so poorly that injury was the only explanation apparent to Puel. This wasn’t so much feud of the week, even if both men looked not best pleased with each other, but confusion of the week.

On Saturday Slaven Bilic sat back, closed his eyes and reminisced over the summer of 2016. Oh what a time that was for the Croatian, a darling of the English media after his first season as a Premier League manager. Dimitri Payet was lighting up the Euros, the finishing touches were being put on West Ham’s gleaming new stadium, with ITV even allowing Bilic to mount any table he likes on live television.

Less than a year later, the Croatian isn’t in such a good position. With nine points between them and the bottom three, West Ham are most likely safe, but the weekend’s collapse at Sunderland (a club so clueless they still haven’t sacked David Moyes) illustrated just how far the Hammers have fallen this season. Bilic won’t be mounting any tables on live TV any time soon.

Some might have Mauricio Pochettino as the victor of this week’s Battle of the Bosses, but let’s not kid ourselves, there is no title race. Chelsea have had their blip and still four points is the difference between the pace-setters and Spurs in second place. Instead a certain German on Merseyside enjoyed the best weekend.

All of a sudden Liverpool find themselves in the top three. Sure, their position is somewhat false having played two more games than Manchester United, but the 1-0 win over West Brom marked an important landmark in their efforts to clinch a top four finish - they kept a clean sheet.

It was the first time the Reds have kept a clean sheet since the 2-0 home win over Spurs on February 11. A few more of them and Jurgen Klopp could surely look forward to Champions League football next season. That toothy grin will get even toothier.