Near the end of Hail, Caesar, the Coen Brothers’ movie about movies, the director shouts in the ear of leading man, Baird Whitlock. Whitlock’s character, a Roman general, is supposed to be having a moment of epiphany as he stares at Christ on the cross and the director urges him to convey a sense of wonder. ‘Squint against the grandeur,’ he says.
That is what we came to Old Trafford to do on Saturday. To be blinded by the light. To gaze at the lightning that crackled and fizzed when Jose Mourinho collided again with Pep Guardiola. To wonder at this meeting of the Premier League’s two behemoths who are both hell bent on domination and spending to prove it.