With the Merseyside Derby commanding most attention last night, Manchester United furtively scurried into the fourth round of the FA Cup thanks to a 2-0 win at home to Derby County, thanks to goals from Romelu Lukaku and Ballon d'Or-contender Jesse Lingard.
The headlines after the football ended, however, belonged to Jose Mourinho. He seemed in relatively conciliatory mood in publicly apologising to one of his players...before ratcheting up his feud with Antonio Conte to the point that the next set of responses may be accompanied by lawyers, rather than press officers.
Let's start with the conciliatory Mou.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan is apparently on the verge of a United exit, Mourinho has hinted so, with Inter Milan believed to be interested. He has barely featured for United since his form nosedived in September, but made a rare start last night.
Not that it lasted particularly long, however. He was hauled off at half-time for Romelu Lukaku, who did supply the second goal in the final minutes.
When asked about that decision, Mourinho revealed that it was unfair, and that the Armenian earned an apology.
Unfair. I told him that at half-time. I didn’t like what I did. He didn’t deserve it, he was playing well, he wasn’t playing bad.
He had a couple of missed passes but he was playing well and giving a good dynamic to the team. My feeling was just that Rashford is not going to score a goal and because of that I’m not going to lose time and I’m going to play Romelu, so then I had to sacrifice a player.
Mkhi was the one that I sacrificed but it’s something that I don’t normally do. But I did at half-time and apologised to him in front of other people because he didn’t deserve it.
Whether he intends it or not, Mourinho's words always carry with it hints of some kind of ulterior motive, and perhaps this apology to a player he will almost certainly sell is a veiled warning to Marcus Rashford, the young striker who missed a sitter in the first-half.
Consider this, when comparing Lukaku with Rashford:
He’s the opposite of Marcus because Marcus scores unbelievable goals in training and missed unbelievable chances in games. I’m not worried with Marcus because his moment will arrive.
Perhaps we're reading too much into it all. When asked about comments made by Antonio Conte (that Mourinho was going "senile"), Mourinho began his response by coming across as really quite measured.
Honestly, I think the press should apologise to me and him. I was speaking about myself and then the question to the Chelsea head coach was that I said he behaved like a clown. I was saying I don’t need to behave like a clown.
Peace at last? Er, nope. That balanced, benevolent comment was followed by an eruption.
What has never happened to me is match fixing and it will never happen.
It is important to point out that Conte was acquitted and cleared of any wrongdoing in May 2016 of an allegation relating to a match-fixing probe when he was in charge of Siena during the 2010/11 season.
We await Conte's response.
