There’s a distinct derby day flavour to this week’s offering of the best the web has had to offer in the last seven days.

With news outlets across the globe making even the most tenuous of links with Saturday’s Mancunian showdown, there’s plenty to go at, so without any further ado…

Watch

How Manchester Became the Centre of World Football – Copa90

Best off giving the comments section a swerve on this one if you have a history of high blood pressure but this is a terrific watch from Copa90.

Outlining how our fair city has been become at the very epicentre of world football, this goes beyond the Guardiola/Mourinho axis to dicsuss a rivalry which has split Manchester in half for more than a century through the eyes of the fans.

Essential pre-derby day viewing.

Quick Read

Jupiter is Blue – National Geographic

Let’s go off-piste for our first online offering and take a visit to the National Geographic website for definitive proof that we’ll have support on Saturday in the cosmos!

According to new photos of the planet, “the northern cap of Jupiter is not quite what scientists expected, with oddly blue clouds and a sprinkling of circular storms.

“Cloud shadows are visible on the planet’s northern cap, which is bluer than expected and sprinkled with a number of small, circular storms.”

One for all the astrologers out there – sadly, famed Mancunian astrophysicist Brian Cox is said to be an Oldham Athletic fan so we’ll not be counting on his support come Saturday.

Listen

The Blizzard Live Q & A at the National Football Museum

The Blizzard is a quarterly football publication which has branched out into live shows and podcast in the last 12 months and the latest, split into two parts, is certainly worth seeking out.

Recorded in front of a live audience as part of the excellent annual Manchester Football Writing Festival, journalists Jonathan Wilson, Jack Pitt-Brooke, Phillipe Auclair and Rory Smith discuss a myriad of subject, including journalistic clangers they’ve dropped and the transfer window.

Dining

Inside Wings – Daily Mail

One of the more original angles for pre-derby content as Daily Mail journalist Mike Keegan takes a trip to a Chinese restaurant in the city centre which has had Pep Guardiola, Claudio Bravo, Paul Pogba, Louis Van Gaal and Mario Balotelli through its doors in recent times.

Nice work if you can get it!

What’s the secret to Wings’ enduring appeal with Premier League superstars, then? Apparently it serves really good food. There you go.

Now if you don’t mind me, I’m off to ask our Editor-in-Chief if further research is required…

Long Read

Pep Guardiola: my debt to Andrés Iniesta and how he opened my eyes on tactics – The Guardian

You don’t hear an awful lot out of Andres Iniesta.

One of the best players of his generation, the Barcelona playmaker has preferred to let his football do the talking… until now!

With the release of his new book, “The Artist”, there are plenty of articles out there cherry-picking the most intriguing sections from his trophy-laden career.

We focus on quotes from our manager, Pep Guardiola, who has revealed that Iniesta changed the way he thought about the game following a tough start to his Nou Camp career.

“I’ve been a coach for a few years now and I have come to the conclusion that a truly good player is always a good player,” Guardiola says.

“It’s very hard to teach a bad player to be a good one. You can’t really teach someone to dribble. The timing needed to go past someone, that instant in which you catch out your opponent, when you go past him and a new scenario opens up before you … Dribbling is, at heart, a trick, a con.

“It’s not speed. It’s not physique. It’s an art.”

Worth a read in full, that one!

Tweet

Silva passes Morientes

To say David Silva had a successful international break is something of an understatement.

The little magician scored three goals in two games to surpass the goalscoring exploits of legendary Spanish striker Fernando Morientes in the all-time scorers list and he sent this cheeky tweet in the direction of his former Valencia teammate.

Translated, “Sorry Morientes but I had good teachers”... What’s Spanish for “banter”?

Goal

Nothing to do us, this one, but who doesn’t love a goalscoring ‘keeper?

During Spennymoor Town’s 5-3 Emirates FA Cup First Round Qualifying win over Radcliffe Borough, goalkeeper Dan Lowson scored this incredible 80-yard free-kick taken from inside his own penalty box…