London: Jose Mourinho has questioned Manchester City's "behaviour" and "education" in relation to their exuberant post-match Derby celebrations that preceded Sunday's ugly tunnel brawl at Old Trafford.
Pep Guardiola launched a staunch defence of City's celebrations and insisted his players had done nothing wrong and were following his instructions to toast the 2-1 win that moved them 11 points clear of Manchester United at the top of the Premier League table.
But Mourinho - who had gone to the City dressing room to ask their victorious players to keep the noise and music down and show more respect, at which stage tempers flared - pointedly questioned his opponents' standards of decency.
When Guardiola's claims that City had shown United huge respect were put to Mourinho, the United manager said: "He says, he says, I'm not here to comment on his words. The only thing I can say is that for me it was just a question of diversity, diversity in behaviour, diversity in education, just that and nothing more than that."
Guardiola and City are likely to raise eyebrows over Mourinho lecturing them over their behaviour given the controversy that has followed the Portuguese's career.
Mourinho cut a terse and prickly figure during his press conference to preview Wednesday's game at home to Bournemouth and was initially reluctant to discuss the ugly scenes after the derby that have triggered an investigation by the Football Association. Romelu Lukaku, the United striker, and defender Marcos Rojo were accused of having prominent roles in the skirmishes but Mourinho chose to focus on the behaviour of City's players.
"This press conference is pre-Bournemouth, it's not post-Manchester City, that was already done and this press conference is pre-Bournemouth," Mourinho said. "I know, but I keep saying this is pre-Bournemouth."
Mikel Arteta, part of City's coaching team, was also reported to have suffered a cut in the alleged incidents and the FA has asked both clubs for their observations.
"Everybody fought hard to win," Guardiola told a news conference. "We could have scored more goals. After the game we celebrated with the fans and went to the changing-room and celebrated the win.
"We try to celebrate, because when we lose we try to accept the defeat. But when we win we celebrate. We won a Derby, what do people expect? We don't celebrate?
"I am the guy who encouraged them to do that, but inside, and after what happened, hopefully it will not happen again."
Guardiola refused to comment on reports that Mourinho had entered the City dressing-room.
"We just won a Derby against our rivals," he said. "When United win a derby they celebrate. When Arsenal win against United they celebrate."
Asked if the motivation against Bournemouth was now greater after the City defeat left Manchester United well adrift in the title race, Mourinho said: "As always, when you lose probably you have a little bit more desire to win it, nobody likes to lose once or lose twice. It is something that belongs to every team in the world... When you lose a match you have extra to give in the next match.
"The motivation is based on the fact that we want to try to win all the time and I repeat when you have a bad result we don't want to have two bad results. We lost against Chelsea and the next match we had a little bit extra to try to win, Chelsea lost this week and for sure the next match they will have a little more to give.
"I told you that when it was [an] eight [point gap] we go match by match, try to win the match, try to get the maximum, the number of points we have, we had seven or eight less in this moment last season. We drew at home against Bournemouth so let's try to do better." Agencies
