Mourinho insists side must fight for top four

Man utd: Manager counts cost of defeat by West Brom

Jose Mourinho believes Manchester United face a fight to secure a top-four finish, never mind sealing second spot.

The inevitable became official on Sunday as Manchester City wrapped up the Premier League title without kicking a ball, thanks to rock-bottom West Brom’s shock 1-0 win at Old Trafford.

United were a shadow of the side that stormed back to win the Manchester derby the previous weekend, leading boss Mourinho to say he would drop floundering stars for Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final against Tottenham.

Before that trip to Wembley comes a league match at Bournemouth, which takes on more significance in the wake of the loss to the beleaguered Baggies.

United can use their game in hand to stretch their lead over third-place Liverpool to four points and all but seal Champions League qualification, which Mourinho believes is up in the air as fifthplaced Chelsea look to kick on.

“We lost three points,” Mourinho said of the defeat to West Brom.

“We lost three points that could give us great stability for the second position.

“Now we still have the fourth position

“Chelsea won and we lost, so we still have to fight for top four. JOSE MOURINHO

to fight for because Chelsea won (at Southampton on Saturday) and we lost, so we still have to fight for top four.”

Mourinho’s former club are 11 points behind United with five matches to play, the same number as United have heading to Bournemouth, where the composition of the Portuguese’s starting line-up and squad will be interesting.

Paul Pogba, Alexis Sanchez and Ander Herrera performed poorly against the Baggies.

Juan Mata was another unable to make an impact on Sunday.

“We know that we have to compete until the last week,” Mata told MUTV.

“It has been a long season, but we need to make sure we can compete until the end and keep that second position and we fight for being in another FA Cup final and try to win it.

“Plenty (to play for this season). One trophy, FA Cup final.

“We all know how important it is and then get second in the league, which is not the ideal position, but it is a position we want to finish now.”

Phil Jones, Marcos Rojo and Scott Mctominay were unused substitutes in Sunday’s loss and will hope to be involved on the south coast.

Marouane Fellaini, Matteo Darmian, Eric Bailly, Michael Carrick and Luke Shaw were absent from the squad that hosted West Brom, while Daley Blind is back in training and pushing for a recall.

Back-up goalkeeper Sergio Romero has been lying low in recent weeks after being involved in a collision playing for Argentina.