This season was supposed to be a title-race contested by the two Manchester clubs.

Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho both strengthened their squads heavily in the summer and, after the first few weeks of the season, it looked as though it was going to be a straight shootout between the two.

However, United simply haven’t been able to keep pace with City and are now 16 points behind them.

And this weekend was particularly painful for the Red Devils.

They watched on as City thrashed Leicester 5-1 on Saturday evening.

United then needed to beat Newcastle on Sunday and stay within 13 points of them but were beaten 1-0 by the relegation candidates during a wretched performance.

After the match, Mourinho was furious - and rightly so.

In fact, Mourinho was so furious that two players may have ended their United career during the defeat to Newcastle.

THE TWO PLAYERS MOURINHO IS PLANNING TO SELL

That’s because the Mirror are reporting that two of the players that started that match could now be sold in the summer.

They are, rather unsurprisingly, Phil Jones and Chris Smalling.

They write: “Jose Mourinho is planning a serious shake-up of Manchester United’s defence this summer — with Chris Smalling and Phil Jones both set to be offloaded.”

United may boast the best defensive record in the league but the England duo continue to make mistakes whenever they’re called upon. And it seems Mourinho has had enough.

Eric Bailly is set to return from his ankle injury at the end of the month and could be paired alongside either Marcos Rojo or Victor Lindelof, with Jones and Smalling set to be dropped.

Both have contracts that run until 2019 but it seems unlikely they will see out the remainder of their deals at this rate.

Who Mourinho will look to sign to replace their duo in the summer remains to be seen. However, both Harry Maguire and Raphael Varane have been name-dropped by the Mirror.

PHIL NEVILLE WILL BE HAPPY

If Mourinho does sell Jones and Smalling, one former player might be quite happy - Phil Neville.

He said the centre-back have been a “disaster” recently following the surprise loss to Newcastle.

“They’ve got the best defensive record because they have the best goalkeeper in the world in David De Gea, and Nemanja Matic out in front who protects them really well,” Neville said.

“But the last two away games, Smalling and Jones have been a disaster.”