It was bad enough for Jose Mourinho that his first Manchester derby ended in defeat.
That the architects of the loss were Pep Guardiola and Kevin De Bruyne might have been even tougher for the Manchester United manager to digest.
In a resumption of the often-feisty rivalry between soccer’s two most coveted coaches, Guardiola got the better of Mourinho as Man City beat Man United 2-1 in the biggest match of the English Premier League so far.
City’s fourth straight win to open the season was inspired by De Bruyne, a player deemed not good enough and discarded by Mourinho when both were at Chelsea.
De Bruyne scored the opening goal in the 15th minute and played a big role in the second goal in the 36th, sending in a shot that thumped the post and rebounded back to Kelechi Iheanacho to tap in.
“Kevin had an amazing, amazing game,” Guardiola said.
With its crisp passing and movement, City delivered a footballing clinic in the first half at Old Trafford to humiliate United and Mourinho, who acknowledged that he couldn’t wait for halftime to come. By then, Zlatan Ibrahimovic had reduced the deficit against the run of play, volleying home after City goalkeeper Claudio Bravo — making his debut — dropped a free kick.
United couldn’t cap an improved second-half display with an equalizer, leaving Mourinho with just one win over Guardiola in his last 10 attempts, and only three in a total of 17 games against Guardiola’s teams.
There was no sign of the bitterness that marked their meetings in Spanish football when in charge of Barcelona and Real Madrid, with Mourinho and Guardiola shaking hands and even sharing a hug before kickoff and at fulltime.
“I didn’t come here to see about the rivalry,” Guardiola said. “He wants to win, I want to win. He beats me and I beat him in the future. It’s as simple as that.”
After three straight wins, United dropped its first points of the season. Chelsea is the only team apart from City to have a 100 percent winning start, and plays its fourth game at Swansea on Sunday.
Here’s what else happened in the Premier League:
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LEICESTER
It doesn’t look like Leicester will deliver another fairytale title success this season.
The champions were beaten 4-1 by Liverpool and have lost two of their four games so far. Leicester lost only three games last season.
Perhaps Liverpool could be the unlikely title challenger this time round. Roberto Firmino scored twice while Sadio Mane and Adam Lallana also scored at Anfield, which hosted its first game of the season following the completion of work to expand the club’s main stand.
Liverpool has already beaten Arsenal and Leicester this season, and drawn at Tottenham.
Next up for Leicester: A break from league play and its first ever match in the Champions League, against Club Brugge on Wednesday.
CONTRASTING WINS
Arsenal left it late. Tottenham had it easy.
The two north London rivals had contrasting victories, with Arsenal needing an injury-time penalty converted by Santi Cazorla to seal a 2-1 win over Southampton at home.
Spurs eased to a 4-0 win at Stoke, with forward Son Heung-min scoring twice and Harry Kane netting his first goal of the season.
It’s early in the season but the top six in the league has a typical look: City, Chelsea, United, Tottenham, Liverpool and Arsenal.
OTHER RESULTS
Watford came from two goals behind to beat West Ham 4-2 at the Olympic Stadium, Bournemouth beat West Bromwich Albion 1-0, Crystal Palace won 2-1 at Middlesbrough, while Burnley and Hull drew 1-1.
