Our defending was ridiculous, fumes Mourinho

JOSE MOURINHO fumed at his team’s ‘ridiculous’ defending last night after Manchester United conceded inside just 11 seconds at Wembley. United were left reeling by Christian Eriksen’s quick opener — the fastest Premier League goal conceded by United — and failed to recover as Tottenham secured a vital victory. Spurs added a second courtesy of Phil Jones’ comic 28th-minute own goal and Mourinho blasted his team for their shocking start to the game, saying: ‘I don’t think it’s normal to concede a goal like we did after 15 seconds. Straight from kick-off is ridiculous. That goal after a few seconds has a big influence because then Tottenham can play the way they like to play. ‘Both goals were ridiculous goals. The first goal is an accumulation of mistakes. ‘My players have watched the Tottenham kick-off many, many times. It was a really, really bad goal. After the first goal the team had a good reaction — we were there and tried to create. ‘The second is not ridiculous but unlucky. It mentally kills the team. We were very bad.’ Mourinho also insisted a knee injury was the reason why he substituted Marouane Fellaini seven minutes after bringing him off the bench. The Belgian looked less than happy as he walked off, but Mourinho said: ‘He was injured. Continually he has the same injury — the lateral (knee) ligament.’ Meanwhile, Mauricio Pochettino said his team’s display was on a par with their Champions League win over Real Madrid. ‘The performance was great, I’m so pleased,’ said the Spurs boss. ‘It was one of the best here. We’ve had some good games here: Real Madrid, Liverpool and now tonight. ‘We deserve a lot of praise but the most important thing now is to keep consistent.’ On his side’s lightning start, Pochettino added: ‘We try to be aggressive from the beginning. You can win a game if you’re ready to fight. It was massive to be up early in the game.’