Jose Mourinho believes the alleged fracas between Manchester United and City players after Sunday's derby came down to a "diversity in behaviour" and "education".
City left Old Trafford with a 2-1 win thanks to goals from David Silva and Nicolas Otamendi, opening up an 11-point lead ahead of United at the top of the table.
But news later broke about an incident in the tunnel after the match, with reports suggesting Mourinho and several members of United's team and coaching staff reacted angrily to apparently disrespectful celebrations.
The FA confirmed they had contacted both clubs for their versions of events, with City coach Mikel Arteta suffering a head wound and Mourinho said to have been struck by a bottle.
The controversy understandably dominated the questions in Mourinho's pre-match news conference ahead of Wednesday's visit of Bournemouth and, although United's press officer eventually shut things down, the Portuguese coach did give a fairly cryptic response to why tempers flared.
When informed that Pep Guardiola spoke of his respect for United in his news conference, Mourinho said: "He says, he says. I'm not there to comment on his words.
"The only thing I can say is it was just a question of diversity; diversity in behaviours, diversity in education.
"Nothing more than that. That's all I'm going to say."
United will be eager to bounce back from their derby disappointment when Bournemouth visit, and Mourinho expects that he will see extra desire from his players.
Jose: "Nobody likes to lose once, nobody likes to lose twice – I think that's something every team in the world feels. When you lose a match, in the next one you have that little bit extra to give."December 12, 2017
"As always when you lose, you probably have a little bit more desire to win," he said.
"Nobody wants to lose once or twice; I think it's something that belongs to every team in the world.
"When you lose, you want to win your next game – you have better desire. The motivation is based on we want to try to win all the time.
"When you have a bad result, you don't want to have two bad results. We lost against Chelsea and then the next match we had a little extra to try to win.
"Chelsea lost this weekend, so for sure they're going to give more in their next match. I think its something every team has."
