José Mourinho: the great manipulator faces his toughest test | Daniel Taylor

It would also mean United being closer in points to the relegation zone than top spot when they face Fulham on Sunday.
Yet it is not United who concern City. After the Chelsea game, the next six opponents for Manuel Pellegrini's team are Norwich (15th), Sunderland (14th), Stoke (11th), Aston Villa (10th), Hull (13th) and Fulham (20th). This is City's chance to establish a position of command before playing at Old Trafford and Arsenal in the space of five days at the end of March.
Mourinho has certainly been trying to get under City's skin. He is very clever in the way he does it, too, mostly because he has so much experience of it. Lots of compliments and almost startled innocence when he is asked why he fell out with Pellegrini in Spain, but enough throwaway lines here and there to manipulate the headlines and be noticed.
Everybody knew which team would immediately be implicated when he talked, without naming names, about clubs with a "dodgy" perception of the financial fair-play rules (clue: not Paris St-Germain this time) and there was a personal edge when he brought up, unsolicited, Pellegrini's error of not realising another goal against Bayern Munich would have meant City winning their Champions League group.
"The first thing to be successful in Europe is to know the rules of the competition, that's the first thing," the two-times Champions League winner helpfully volunteered.
On Pellegrini's part, there has been a look of weary, seen-it-all-before indifference. Some managers prefer to be self-contained, and City's is better described as vacuum-packed. "I never comment on anything Mourinho says," he says.
Mourinho, passing around flutes of champagne and clinking glasses at one recent press conference, is an entirely different beast. What stands out most of all is the sense of grievance he has towards City because of the acclaim they receive. More than once, he has taken exception to it and referred back to the hostilities that accompanied his title wins for Chelsea, in line with Roman Abramovich's rebuilding of the club.
"In my time we were accused of buying the title, no? Because our owner was Mr Abramovich, just arrived in the country. Maybe now people see City in a different way. I don't know. And I don't care. I don't envy the fact that they have this kind of protection, or whichever word it is."
He did follow that up by explaining that maybe super-rich owners were no longer a novelty, but it was all wrapped in the same accusation that Chelsea were taking FFP seriously.
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