The first Manchester derby of the season is one sleep away and, predictably, it's being billed as an early title decider. The reality is that, with the season only three games old, it's impossible to know what its significance will be. Who knows which side is going to win the league this year; it could be fucking Leicester again, or Hull City, for all we know. Why would you even trust football journalists to make predictions anymore, when we were all proved to be absolutely clueless last season? Open your eyes, sheeple, because we have absolutely no idea.That said, there's still plenty of reason to be excited about the Manchester derby. If the Premier League is a relentless meat grinder, Manchester has at least provided us with some quality meat. We've cast off the the Wall's bangers-level offal of Louis van Gaal and Manuel Pellegrini, and replaced it with the delicious Iberian chorizo of Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola. Their rivalry looks set to provide us with some mouthwatering entertainment in the coming months, even if it comes with a bitter aftertaste.See, relations between Pep and Jose have soured somewhat in recent times. Old friends from their time at Barcelona together, Pep was once the protégé and Jose the senior coach. When Frank Rijkaard was sacked by Barca in the summer of 2008, Mourinho hoped to take the reins at the Camp Nou. Instead, the job went to Guardiola, then coach of the B team. The seeds of a vicious feud were sown, and soon grew into a thorny mesh when Mourinho took over at Real Madrid in 2010.During their time contesting El Clasico against each other, Jose and Pep were involved in numerous altercations. There were red cards and mass shoving matches in almost all of their clashes, including one where, infamously, Mourinho gouged Tito Vilanova in the eye. While it's probably best we avoid a repeat when the Sky Blues arrive at Old Trafford on Saturday, that same viciousness will be simmering under the surface. That should make for an infinitely watchable match, whether it turns out to be an early title decider or not.
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While it will be hard to take our eyes off the managers' dugouts, Pep and Jose aren't the only Manchester derby debutants to grace Old Trafford this weekend. Claudio Bravo, John Stones, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Paul Pogba should all feature, revitalising a fixture which could do with a few new faces. This could also be Zlatan Ibrahimovic's first taste of derby action, and he's bound to be at his bombastic best. He's no fan of Guardiola either, so expect at least one handshake snub before the end of the day.