Football stars must be role models.. not rolling about models

CRUSHINGLY predictable, it was only a couple of minutes into his postmatch press conference at the Etihad when Jose Mourinho referred to the “unfair fight” with Liverpool.

He could have been referring to the fact that Manchester United have a net transfer spend of £278million since the summer of 2014, compared to Liverpool’s £68million.

Or he could afford to let Morgan Schneiderlin leave in the January transfer window and let Bastian Schweinsteiger follow.

Or that he could name four England internationals on the bench for the game at Manchester City, while Jurgen Klopp had to use teenagers on his bench for the home defeat to Crystal Palace.

He wasn’t referring to any of that, of course. He was referring to the fact that United have played a lot more matches than Liverpool. But Mourinho’s bleating about United’s schedule is spurious.

It is not as if all these fixtures have suddenly been sprung on them.

Not as if Mourinho did not know how many games it would take to go all the way in the EFL Cup, to achieve success in the Europa League, to go relatively deep into the FA Cup.

Not as if Mourinho (above) did not know there are 38 Premier League games.

Anyone would think his repeated complaints are purely designed to make his own achievement in United winning the EFL Cup, taking them on an unbeaten run of 24 League games and to a European semi-final is even better than it seems.

IN the interests of fairness, Antonio Conte would like to see the final three rounds of Premier League fixtures played on the same days at the same times.

Fair play to Conte, he has got to grips with the English language in impressive fashion.

It is just television’s total control of the Premier League he needs to understand.

FLAWED GUNNER: Alexis Sanchez’s comical theatrics in midweek do nothing for the game