Red Devils a top team in the Europa: Jose

TOTTENHAM boss Jose Mourinho says Manchester United will be one of the favourites to win the Europa League this season.

Mourinho’s former club drop i nto t he secondary European competition after they were knocked out of the Champions League on Tuesday.

Uni t e d won the Euro p a League in 2016 under Mourinho, who will be looking to guide his current club Spurs to the top of the standings in tonight’s Group J decider against Royal Antwerp.

“Of course, now Manchester United become one of the top favourites to win the competition. The teams that drop down are always strong teams, teams that normally don’t belong to that level of the Europa League competition,” he said.

“Manchester United are one of the top teams. The group was very hard, PSG, Manchester and Leipzig, very hard. We all knew it was not going to be easy for any one of them and we all knew from that group a top team would drop into the Europa League.”

Spurs will be keen to avoid the possibility of meeting a big gun in the first knockout round by winning their group with victory against Antwerp at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Mourinho’s side were well beaten in Belgium in the return fixture, with the boss memorably making four half-time substitutions, but he fancies them to finish the job in north London.

“We did our job to qualify in the first five matches and now in one game at home, with 2,000 fans behind us, we have the chance to play one game to try to win the group,” said Mourinho.