Pep Guardiola has fired back at Jose Mourinho after his rival questioned the legitimacy of Manchester City's title success.
Guardiola took aim at Mourinho following City's 2-0 defeat to Liverpool at Anfield earlier this month.
After being taunted by the home crowd with a 'sacked in the morning' chant, Guardiola held up six fingers – referencing the number of title wins he's had as manager of Manchester City.
Advert
It was reminiscent of Mourinho holding up three fingers while at Manchester United in reference to the three titles he previously won with Chelsea.
Speaking in his post-match interview, Guardiola fired an unprovoked dig at Mourinho after being compared to the 'Special One'.
"He won three and I won six," said Guardiola. "But we are together, it is the same in that situation."
Fenerbahce boss Mourinho clearly took offence to those comments, later alleging that Manchester City may not have won titles fairly under Guardiola.
Advert
It comes amid City's ongoing 115 Premier League charges hearing, with the Premier League club accused of breaching various rules including strict financial regulations. City strenuously deny all charges against them, with a final outcome to the hearing expected in February.
In reference to the hearing, Mourinho said: "I want to win, but I want to win cleanly and fairly. If I can't win cleanly, I'd rather lose.
"Guardiola told me something like this… he won six trophies and I won three.
"But I won fairly and cleanly. If I lost, I want to congratulate my opponent for being better than me. I don't want to win by dealing with 150 cases."
Advert
Guardiola has now fired back at Mourinho, claiming the former Chelsea and United manager wants to see City relegated.
"He is another one on the huge list who want my team at the bottom, in League One or the Conference," said the City boss.
"I would say to Jose: 'We are innocent until proven guilty.'"
Advert
It's not the first time Guardiola has accused City's rivals of wanting to see them punished before the outcome of the Premier League hearing.
Speaking in September after La Liga president Javier Tebas said that many of City's biggest rivals want to see them sanctioned, Guardiola said: "Maybe he's right.
"For the fact that all the Premier League teams want us to be sanctioned, that is for sure.
"I agree with Tebas for the first time, and hopefully the last. I am pretty sure I agree with that. That's why I say to Mr Tebas and the Premier League teams: wait for the independent panel.
Advert
"Justice is there in a modern democracy so yeah, wait for the decision, it's not more complicated than that. But I don't know if he is a lawyer or the rest of the Premier League teams are lawyers so what I ask for is that – wait, it happened with UEFA.
"We believe that we have not done anything wrong so we go to an independent panel and we are going to wait."
City are currently fourth in the Premier League but could move up to second with victory away at Crystal Palace on Saturday afternoon.
They will move to within six points of league leaders Liverpool with a victory, after the Reds' Merseyside derby against Everton was called off on Saturday due to safety fears around Storm Darragh.
Topics: Manchester City, Pep Guardiola, Jose Mourinho, Premier League, Football, FFP
Rory O'Callaghan