Jose Mourinho vs Pep Guardiola: After last season's damp squib, the battle of the giants is really on between Manchester United and City's bosses

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Manchester dominates the top of the Premier League standings with City and United sitting first and second.

The city rivals share an identical record in points, goals scored, goals conceded and ultimately goal difference - with City ahead based on alphabetical order.

Is this the season we see the two clubs vying for the title with old adversaries Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho at the helm? Sportsmail assesses the likelihood...

Pep Guardiola (left) and Jose Mourinho are set to go head-to-head for the Premier League title

So we're going to see Jose v Pep: The Rematch on British soil?

It looks like it. Their teams hold the same number of points, goals and goal difference, five games in. Alphabetical order puts City top.

What happened when these two last went head to head?

It went very badly indeed, from Guardiola's perspective. It was the 2011-12 season in La Liga, Mourinho's second at the helm of Real Madrid.

The Portuguese had effectively sealed the title by early spring with a 2-1 win at the Nou Camp in which Sami Khedira, a quintessential Mourinho midfield soldier, got the opening goal. 

Six weeks later, Guardiola walked away from Barcelona. Uncomfortable omens for him.

Sami Khedira (right) scores as Mourinho's Real Madrid beat Guardiola's Barcelona in April 2012

Weren't we talking about this clash of the titans 12 months ago?

Yes, but neither manager had a side well enough equipped to mount a title challenge, then. 

Mourinho tends to go to war with the managers who threaten him and dent his monumental ego, so he settled for Antonio Conte instead. 

When United and Chelsea clashed in March, in the FA Cup quarter-final, the pair were screaming in each other's faces on the touchline. The Pep and Jose show evaporated.

Mourinho's spat with a manager came in the shape of Chelsea boss Antonio Conte last season

Why do the Manchester teams suddenly hold the cards now?

After a year spent integrating, spending and restructuring, both managers now have something like the squads they wanted. 

Chelsea and Tottenham have been doing the evaporating. United and City have each scored more goals than the pair of them put together.

Will it be a different Jose v Pep this time?

Definitely not. It's been very much that old Spanish clash of styles revisited this season: the power and persistence of the Mourinho team versus the possession and polish of Guardiola. 

The symmetry between Pep's Barca and this City edition are fascinating. This manager attached huge value to having marauding full backs at the Nou Camp and made Dani Alves his first significant signing. 

People balked at the £26million price but Alves got his essential philosophy: 'Always dare to take risks.'

Eric Abidal was less adventurous but offered attacking width too. City's transformation has come through the arrival of wing backs Kyle Walker and Benjamin Mendy - combined cost £97.65million.

Again, people balked, but the pair bring that essential new dimension. Last season, City averaged 14.3 crosses per game in the Premier League with a success rate of 18.3 per cent. This season they're averaging 18.6 crosses per game, with a similar success rate.

Mourinho's addition of Nemanja Matic, a Khedira type, gives his team a familiar look, too, while the defence looks settled in the way his always are. 

And suddenly there's pace. Romelu Lukaku's natural instinct is to run away from the ball and stretch defences, while Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Wayne Rooney usually ran towards the ball last season, often slowing down the team.

Kyle Walker has proved a success early on in his City career under Guardiola's guidance

Nemanja Matic (left) has been a calming influence in the heart of United's midfield this summer

But they've both scored 16 goals. Does this mean more Mourinho creativity?

Not really. If there's a question mark about United so far it's the way they've laboured for goals for much of their games. Gary Neville admitted Sunday's 4-0 win over Everton 'wasn't a good performance', identifying a pattern where United get in front, are patient and sometimes even retreat with a few defensive substitutions, before scoring goals late, as 'the other team get desperate'. Nine of those 16 goals have come after 75 minutes.

City are the outstanding attacking side of the pair, with their seven forward players plus the totemic Kevin De Bruyne, whom Guardiola has intelligently positioned several yards deeper this season. 

City have so many attacking options that defences and midfields are dropping back, allowing De Bruyne more time and space.

Sergio Aguero scored a hat-trick as City won 6-0 at Watford in the Premier League on Saturday

Anthony Martial (centre) scored a late fourth as United beat Everton 4-0 on Sunday afternoon

Who wants to win it more?

Mourinho. The way City went about dismantling Feyenoord in the De Kuip bear pit last Wednesday suggests the mental flimsiness of recent years is in the past. 

But the residual bitterness Mourinho will always feel about Barcelona's decision to hire Guardiola, rather than him, in 2008, makes beating Pep something personal.

He was desperate for that job. His agent Jorge Mendes pestered Barca's then sporting director Txiki Begiristain to interview him. Mourinho then gave an ambitious PowerPoint presentation during an interview in Lisbon, laying out how he would turn the team around. 

But Begiristain and fellow director Ferran Soriano didn't like Mourinho's capacity to cause a row in an empty room and hired Guardiola instead. Begiristain and Soriano are now sporting director and chief executive at City. Payback would be indescribably sweet for Mourinho, the manager scorned.

Mourinho desperately wanted the Barcelona job in 2008 but was overlooked for Guardiola

Any mind games yet?

Of course. A classic Mourinho soundbite came on Sunday, when he said that he 'didn't think one single second about Manchester City' after the Everton win. Ander Herrera also lobbed in a few grenades with his digs about big-spending City being under most pressure and winning no silverware last season.

So who's going to win the title?

City might have the bigger attacking armoury and creative options but the defence, with the risky high line it takes and a new goalkeeper Ederson, have barely been tested yet. They did look breachable early on against Liverpool two weeks ago.

United's squad is less complete and could struggle if Lukaku or Paul Pogba are absent for any considerable time. 

But it's conceivable that City will go all out to capture the Champions League, so cherished by them, as they look for greater global recognition, while Mourinho, ever the pragmatist, may conclude that trophy is a step too far. He'll have a one-track mind on the Premier League.

Mourinho's team won't be the league's most thrilling but expect him to win it, just as he did in that Spanish second season, six long years ago.

Don't expect Mourinho and Guardiola to be arm-in-arm come the business end of the season