With the Premier League already looking a dead duck, this long weekend's FA Cup action has taken on some added ferocity.
Excluding Manchester City and Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp, Arsene Wenger, Mauricio Pochettino, Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte will perhaps look to the competition with a touch more longing this season.
Although Louis van Gaal was not spared his marching orders despite United's win two years ago, combined with a top 4 finish, it still has the potential to make a season look a little less disastrous.
It is a reality not lost on Mourinho, or, on the evidence of his pre-match press this afternoon, Conte either.
Questioned about Mourinho's dismissive comments regarding a cohort of managers who "behave like clowns, play-acting on the sideline," Conte was quick to call out the hypocrisy of his Portuguese opponent:
I think he has to see himself in the past. Maybe he was speaking about himself, in the past?
Without question, Conte's histrionics on the sideline are a sight to behold - Sky Sports, with the accompanying soundtrack of Luciano Pavarotti singing "Nessun Dorma", have made a short advertisement out of it.
Unable to help himself however when faced with Mourinho's comments, Conte went one step further:
Sometimes I think, I don't know the name but, demenza senile, when you are a bit eh ... when you forget what you do in the past, you understand?
While the gathered journalists couldn't, or wouldn't, have a go at translating Conte's comments, it does seem rather clear; even in it's original Italian.
Dementia, senility, such terms are not likely to endear Conte to Mourinho any further. The man who permanently replaced Mourinho upon his second departure from Chelsea, they have had previous altercations - Mourinho's allusion toward Conte's hair transplant the most brilliantly childish thus far.
Both Mourinho and Conte will see their teams taking on Championship opponents in this weekend's third-round FA Cup action, United traveling to Derby County while Chelsea go to Carrow Road to face Norwich City.
You can see the whole of Conte's very entertaining press conference below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keASKREzhHI&feature=youtu.be
