José Mourinho questioned Sergio Agüero’s role in Marouane Fellaini’s red card after the Manchester United midfielder was sent off for a head-butt in a goalless derby.
Fellaini had been booked for impeding Agüero and after chasing him down, again fouled the striker. Martin Atkinson blew for a foul and Fellaini approached Agüero, appearing to make the first movement towards him before he fell to the ground clutching his face. Mourinho admitted Fellaini had given Atkinson “a chance” to send him off but suggested Agüero’s reaction had contributed to the dismissal.
“If Sergio doesn’t go to the floor for sure it’s not a red card but if Marouane gave him chance to do that … ,” he said. “I don’t know because I didn’t watch. I have just three details. Marouane says it’s a red card because it’s Marouane. He is very disappointed. He feels it is a red card because he is Marouane Fellaini.
“Martin Atkinson told me in his opinion it’s a red card but I saw Agüero in the tunnel but no broken nose no broken head, his face is nice as always, so I’m not so sure. Probably I can guess it is a bit of a red card and a bit of a very experienced, smart Argentinian player.”
Pep Guardiola, was reluctant to respond to Mourinho’s comments directly. “I’m not here to judge what my opponents decide to do,” he said. “I’m not going to talk about what happened in the last minutes. It didn’t change the game. Speak with the referees. I don’t want to talk about the referees. He took a decision so speak with them. I didn’t see it on TV, I was far away. I don’t like to see guys sent off and would prefer to see Fellaini stay on the pitch but I’m not going to analyse it.”
A point for each side means a top-four finish is still in the hands of City and United. While Guardiola’s team are in fourth place, a point behind Liverpool, United are in fifth, two behind, and each side has played a match fewer than Jürgen Klopp’s men.
Mourinho said: “We have played half of a Premier League more than Liverpool almost – 18 matches are many miles in the players legs so if you can say. That is an unfair fight but we are going for that.”
While Fellaini will miss three games, Guardiola will find out how serious Claudio Bravo’s calf injury is. “Looks like it could be a few games but we will have to see tomorrow when I speak with the doctor,” he said.
