MOURINHO REACTS TO VICTORY OVER ARSENAL
It was fair to say the Manchester United manager was pleased with his troops, as Jose Mourinho described his side as “phenomenal”, “amazing” and “fantastic” after the Reds put in an impressive performance to beat Arsenal 3-1 on Saturday evening.
Antonio Valencia’s early strike and a double from Jesse Lingard, coupled with some heroic defending and terrific goalkeeping from David De Gea, ensured United came away from the Emirates Stadium with three vital points which cuts the gap at the top of the table to five points.
Read the key points from the boss in his post-match interviews with MUTV and BT Sport…
PRAISE FOR PERFORMANCE
“I thought it was a phenomenal game. I loved the way my team played and fought. But I also have to say that Arsenal played, in some periods, amazing attacking football, creating difficulties for us. But I have to say that my players deserve all the great words. I don’t know so many more in English! But amazing, phenomenal, fantastic, and deserved the three points.”
WHAT WAS THE PLAN?
“The plan was when they [Arsenal] had the ball, we all had to defend, starting with the attacking players, and when we have the ball, we had to try to counter-attack fast and try to score goals, which we did. We had the ball against the post, we had this last situation with [Romelu] Lukaku facing Petr Cech and, of course, they [Arsenal] can say they had chances but we fought and we had a great goalkeeper too and I think we deserve [the win].”
PLEASED WITH TACTICAL AWARENESS
“They [the players] had the intelligence to play tactically according to the moments of the game because the game, we started in a way and then, when [Shkodran] Mustafi comes off, they changed and we changed and then later, playing with 10 men, we had to change again so I think it was hard for the players from the mental and tactical point of the view.”
THOUGHTS ON POGBA RED CARD
“I don’t know. I’ll leave that one for you [the media]. I’ll leave for you the Lukaku situation with [Laurent] Koscielny and I’ll leave for you the Arsenal players on the grass but I’ll probably be the same because the grass is absolutely beautiful. I think there is a desire to go for the grass!”
INJURY DOUBT MATIC RECOVERS TO PLAY
“He did great work that he did in the last couple of days. Fantastic dedication from the members of the medical staff that were working with him and we managed to go from a ‘maybe’ to a ‘yes’. He was a doubt, he managed to play 90 minutes but I think the best words must go to Arsenal’s medical department because [Alexandre] Lacazette went from a ‘no’ to a ’90 minutes’ and that’s great.”
‘COMFORTABLE’ PLAYING WITH 10 MEN
“The players grew up, they understood the game better and the players understood that with one game less, it’s not about focus on pressing the man, it’s more about the zone and to create a compact block and then, yes, press the ball in these areas, so I think the team felt very comfortable and we still managed to have a situation that, maybe you can speak better than me, the situation with Lukaku with Koscielny.”
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