Temperature rises as Mourinho flies in

Michael Ballack, centre, challenges United players Patrice Evra, right, and Jonny Evans during the 1-1 draw in September.

A special one for a special match. Jose Mourinho is expected to wash up at Old Trafford today to watch his old club Chelsea wrestle with Manchester United in their latest episode of armed combat. The Inter Milan manager has a hunger to glean information before confronting United in the last 16 of the Champions League. One suspects he will be no less riveted by how Chelsea conduct their business. Mourinho cornered the title for Chelsea in 2005 and 2006 and has done as much as anyone to make this contest the epic into which it has evolved over the past five years or so.

This London-Manchester derby surely has as much gusto and meaning as United-City or a Chelsea-Arsenal. The bold Mourinho's presence is apt given some of the capers to be found in the ongoing lunatic fringes of the pre-match press conference. The Portuguese would have no doubt luxuriated in the gamesmanship of Sir Alex Ferguson that helped to detonate tripwire inside the head of the Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez on Friday.

Mourinho always relished such banter, especially with a bemused Benitez. Ferguson feels Liverpool will get nervous the longer they lead the standings. Having failed to reel in the English league since 1990, one would think his point was perfectly credible. It may or may not be getting nervous at the top, but it is getting noisy. A burly and bearded Benitez looks as if he could do a turn on the door of the Southport nightclub from which Steven Gerrard was recently lifted. His sentiments gave off an acrid scent of bad blood, the thrust of his outburst pointing to his belief that United enjoy preferential treatment from governing bodies and referees.

Ferguson, like a footballing equivalent of Doctor Hannibal Lecter, has tended to enjoy such mind games after driving the then Newcastle manager Kevin Keegan to distraction some 12 years ago. The fraught ways of United versus Chelsea reached a crescendo last season when it became a fixture that wound up settling the leading prizes in club football. Chelsea downed United 2-1 at home on the penultimate day of the season in England, only for United to snag the league by disposing of Wigan. United then made off with the Champions League final after John Terry slipped in the penalty shootout.

The Chelsea manager Luiz Felipe Scolari has recently felt like a buffoon, slipping and sliding at home and drawing with Southend United in the FA Cup. Time on the road could be time well spent. United are four points behind second-placed Chelsea with Liverpool a further three points on before they headed for Stoke yesterday. United have two games in hand. Having lost to Liverpool and Arsenal, Chelsea have a need to succeed.

Mourinho once slid down the pitch at Old Trafford after his FC Porto side throttled United in the Champions League. Scolari may not move with such swiftness, but he will be as animated if Chelsea can cut United this time. @Email:[e-mail]