The clash between Manchester United and Tottenham at Old Trafford looks set to get the Premier League weekend off to a thrilling start.

The two clubs are level on points and are hoping to keep pace with Manchester City - who are five points ahead of both clubs.

Spurs will have to do without Harry Kane who has picked up a hamstring injury but Mauricio Pochettino will still be expecting his side to get a positive result at the Theatre of Dreams.

After all, Pochettino set his side up perfectly to get a respectable draw against Real Madrid at the Bernabeu.

In the same week, the north London club thrashed Liverpool 4-1 at Wembley to maintain their title ambitions.

Despite their Carabao Cup defeat to West Ham in midweek, the Lilywhites will go into the clash with plenty of confidence.

And it’s little surprise given their squad and the manager at the helm.

Despite not winning a trophy during his managerial career, Pochettino is earning plenty of plaudits for turning Spurs into genuine title challengers.

But he could easily have been in the United dugout this weekend, rather than the away one.

That’s because, according to the Daily Mail, Alex Ferguson wanted the Argentine to replace Louis van Gaal at United.

“Ferguson would have quite liked to see Pochettino replace Louis van Gaal as manager of United in the summer of 2016, not long after the two men had that lunch. Senior figures at Old Trafford and some players agreed,” they write.

A lot was made of the lunch Ferguson and Pochettino had last year while United were in search for a new manager.

But what was said during that meeting over lunch?

Well, according to the same report from the Daily Mail, Ferguson gave some advice to the Spurs manager.

“At their lunch, Ferguson told Pochettino that any match begins in the press conference and that you must always win it. Pochettino is not sure he agrees but he knows that Mourinho thinks the way of the great knight of Old Trafford.”

Ferguson was always considered the King of mind games in press conferences before matches and it seems he’s passed some of his widows onto the Tottenham manager.

So don’t be surprised to see Pochettino playing a few mind game in press conferences ahead of big matches in the future. After all, he’s learned from the best.