Across the pond

Author: Adam Clayton

England 's first clash of the contenders occurred Sunday Nov. 26 when Manchester United battled Chelsea to a lively 1-1 draw. While the match presented an opportunity for both teams to establish bragging rights as mid-season favorites for the league crown, it also sparked the bi-annual mind games between managers Sir Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho. Their ability to whip the media into a frenzy and stoke even the mild fan into a passionate display of club pride makes their American counterparts look positively amateurish.

Twenty years into Ferguson's Manchester United dynasty, his relationship with the British press continues to alternate between outright hostility and veiled disdain, instilling an us-against-them attitude in everyone from his players to the boardroom executives. When he isn't imposing a ban on sources he considers unfavorable, he is carefully circulating propaganda to unsettle the opposition. Last week, his star forward Cristiano Ronaldo, himself no stranger to deception, taunted Chelsea by claiming that the match represented Manchester United's fourth most important rivalry.

Despite Ferguson's mastery of the media, he pales beside the genius of Mourinho, the self-declared "special one," who competes only with God (not my assertion) for absolute authority in all matters related to his football club.

In spite of lacking a football pedigree to rival others in the game and entering professional football at 29, Mourinho has managed to transform the expectations for management and football in general. Following Chelsea's defeat to Barcelona in last season's Champions League, Mourinho falsely alleged that referee Anders Frisk met with his opponent during the halftime. Frisk later received death threats relating to Mourinho's claims and was forced to prematurely retire from football.

Chelsea now find themselves in an enviable position - every person charged with officiating Chelsea games is intensely aware of failing to meet Mourinho's personal standards. While it would perhaps be overly cynical to assume that Mourinho intended such a response from crazed Chelsea fans, death threats also followed Mourinho's outrage at the removal of his two goalkeepers due to injury suffered from Reading 's forwards.

The message to the referee was clear when Mourinho declared that he expected every call in Sunday's clash to "be correct."

After the Manchester United match, Mourinho relentlessly pursued any advantage possible, claiming that the draw benefited Chelsea. With Chelsea still three points behind Manchester in the standings, the Premiership is up for grabs. Two things are for certain, Mourinho will use unlimited Russian oil money and he will continue to dominate the back pages for decades to come.