José dismisses EPL out of hand in favour of fresh legs

MANCHESTER United manager José Mourinho will unapologetically seek to preserve the freshness of his players over their final three Premier League matches, he said after they reached the Europa League final. Tottenham Hotspur host United today and prepare for an emotional afternoon at White Hart Lane against fittingly illustrious visitors for the last match to be played at the Lilywhites’ 118-year-old stadium.

In the last-ever fixture at the ground, Spurs are looking to finish the 2016/17 season unbeaten at home.

United may prove suitably distracted too with Mourinho having written off their chances of a top-four finish while fluttering eyes only at the Europa League.

So, with United out of the equation, the fight for the third and fourth places to guarantee Champions League football next term has reached a critical point.

United will play Ajax Amsterdam in Stockholm on May 24 after a nervy 1-1 draw at home to Celta Vigo on Thursday, in which centreback Eric Bailly was sent off, gave them a 2-1 aggregate semifinal win.

Whereas Ajax’s season finishes today at Willem II, United still have three league matches to play and Mourinho said he would have no qualms about making sure his players were in top shape for the trip to Sweden.

“Obviously now Ajax think about the final,” the United manager told journalists at Old Trafford.

“Their league finishes on Sunday [today] and they will have 12 days to prepare for the final and we have three Premier League matches to play.

“Hopefully Crystal Palace [United’s final league opponents] don’t need the last game, because in the last game I’m going to make a lot of changes and nobody can blame us because we have a final two days later.”

With United struggling to secure a top-four finish in the Premier League, having fallen four points behind fourthplace Manchester City, winning the Europa League is their last hope of reaching the Champions League.

But Mourinho said it would be wrong purely to view the final as a means to an end, particularly as United have never previously won the competition.

“It means an opportunity to win a trophy, the opportunity to be back in the Champions League,” said the 54-year-old Portuguese, who won the Uefa Cup — the precursor to the Europa League — with FC Porto in 2003.

We’ve got quality like Chelsea: Klopp

LIVERPOOL manager Jürgen Klopp has said that the 14point gap between his club and leaders Chelsea is not an accurate reflection of the difference in quality between the two Premier League sides.

Liverpool are clinging to a spot in the top four. They are third, a point and a place above Manchester City, having played a game more.

Fifth-placed Arsenal are also challenging for a top-four finish, also with a game in hand.

“Everything is still in our hands,” Klopp told British media. “It shows a lot of things are not that bad even if not everything is how we wanted. All the teams have to play tough games and no one wins all of them. Now we have to win ours and it will be fine.”

The German said that with Liverpool having won 2-1 at Stamford Bridge and drawing 1-1 with Chelsea at Anfield in the league this season, there was very little to choose between the sides in terms of quality.

Liverpool travel to West Ham United today before hosting already-relegated Middlesbrough in their final game of the season.

Eagles rely on ’Big Sam’ to fly higher

SAM Allardyce, the Midlander that unfancied, struggling Premier League clubs turn to when deep in the mire, will hope to steer Crystal Palace to a point from the basement showdown with Hull City today.

Now, it is Palace who are grateful to have Allardyce on board, even if it has been a curious adventure, ricocheting between the abysmal and the exhilarating, since he took the helm of Alan Pardew’s sinking ship just before Christmas.

The 62-year-old is nobody’s fool when it comes to rescuing lost causes and even though he lost six of his first eight league matches in charge, once his familiar hallmarks of shrewd signings, clever man-management, intensive training and tactical nous kicked in, the makeover was extraordinary.

Palace won six of their next eight, including wholly improbable victories at table-topping Chelsea and Liverpool and a 3-0 home win over Arsenal hailed as the club’s finest Premier League showing. —