MOURINHO’S A WORK OF ART
Jose’s pop at Pep: Attractive when it’s not my team
HE’S been the Special One and the Normal One.
But Jose Mourinho claimed he was the ARTISTIC one after Manchester United produced a brilliant first-half display to swat Watford aside.
The Old Trafford boss was left purring after the Red Devils maintained their four-month run without defeat following the 2-0 win over the Hornets.
United, the first team to win 2,000 Premier League points and are now 16 games unbeaten.
Walter Mazzarri’s side arrived on the back of victories over Arsenal and Burnley, but had their spirit broken by Juan Mata before the interval and a second from Anthony Martial on the hour wrapped up the points.
But Mourinho was especially pleased with the performance in the opening half as shots rained down on Heurelho Gomes’s goal every few minutes.
And in a side- swipe at Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola – famed for his approach to attractive football – Mourinho (below) said: “It was the kind of football that if it was not Mourinho’s team but someone else’s team you would say it was art.
“Because it is my team you just say it was very good – but that’s OK. “It was very good. od. “The first half was amazing. In the e second half we had to score a goal to kill the game. And we did that.
“After that, we didn’t kill it to o make it 3- 0, we killed it tactically. y. And we did that because Watford are a good team with good players.
“We had to kill the game and the result but it was a very positive victory for us.”
Mourinho had words of praise, too, for Martial.
The young forward has been in and out of his manager’s plans all season.
He has been linked with moves away from Old Trafford and a few complaints have reached the ears of his boss. But he created the opener for Mata and then scored the second himself and the Portuguese was happy with his efforts.
Mourinho said: “The Anthony Martial I want is the Anthony Martial of the past two weeks in training because if he trains as he hash done, then he perf performs the way he di did today, or better.
“I gave him the chance to start. Normally, I would start with Marcus Rashford because h he has done very w well but I thought Mar Marcus doesn’t need a boos boost, his confidence levels are normal.
“But I think Anthony is still missing a bit of confidence. I kept shouting to him: ‘Attack the defender’ when he was one- on- one. He needs that confidence but he’s working very well.
“Anthony needs to know I am looking at him. That I’ve seen the effort he has put in during training so today I gave him his chance and he played well.” Mourinho’s side, after being stuck in sixth place for so long, now appear to be hot on the heels of the pack immediately below Chelsea.
This was their fourth c l ean sh e e t in succession but Mourinho said, that converting draws into three-point hauls would be the key to cont inued improvement in their league placing.
He said: “Other teams are the lucky teams. Hull were lucky against us. Today, we have an amazing victory, but we should have more. With that we’d be in a better position . We have to keep fighting.”