Pep Guardiola reveals his side of the Manchester derby bust-up between City, United and Jose Mourinho
The Spaniard admitted he encouraged the celebrations after such a big win
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Your support makes all the difference.Pep Guardiola has revealed his side of the Old Trafford tunnel bust-up between Manchester United, Manchester City and Jose Mourinho that overshadowed Sunday’s derby.
Mourinho was reported to have entered City’s dressing room after the visitors’ win took them 11 points clear at the top, asking them to keep their music down and be respectful before an argument broke out with goalkeeper Ederson and water and milk was thrown on him.
That led to United players storming towards the away dressing room before a reported 30-man brawl broke out between the two sides.
When asked about exactly what happened, Guardiola refused to elaborate but he did stand by City’s right to celebrate and even admitted it was he who encouraged the partying.
“[Our behaviour] was correct, believe me,” Guardiola insisted ahead of Wednesday’s game with Swansea. “We jumped, because we were happy. People have to understand that we were happy.
“I am the guy who encouraged them to do that, but inside, and after what happened, it happened, hopefully it will not happen again.
“I think all the teams around the world when they win a derby they are so happy. When we won with Bayern we were happy, with Barcelona we celebrated. When United win they celebrate, when Arsenal win against United they celebrate, when Arsenal win the FA Cup last season they celebrate, but where? Inside the dressing room.
Guardiola was adamant City’s celebrations did not get out of hand: “No. Definitely not. Believe me. Definitely not. It was the same after the Southampton game, that was 96 mins or something like that, but we were happy. It was a derby, it was the closest rival.
“We try to celebrate, because when we lose we try to accept the defeat, but when we win we celebrate. We celebrate in the right moments, for example we celebrated in Napoli, you have to do that, but inside [the dressing room].”
Mourinho, who was speaking in his pre-match press conference prior to United’s home game with Bournemouth, was a lot more closed on the matter, and refused to comment on what Guardiola had said, although he did say diversity was a big issue in the fracas.
“He says he says, I'm not here to comment on his words the only thing I can say is that for me was just a question of diversity, diversity in behaviour, diversity in education, just that and nothing more,” Mourinho said, minutes after Guardiola gave his version of events.
Guardiola also refused to talk about his assistant Mikel Arteta, who suffered a facial injury by a stray bottle in the incident, but did confirm that Vincent Kompany would miss the game with Swansea with a “muscular” injury after being withdrawn at half-time of the derby.
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