Mourinho attacks Old Trafford’s in-house TV station

Jose Mourinho criticised Manchester United’s own television station as the embattled manager showed fresh signs of strain ahead of tonight’s clash with Arsenal.

Mourinho is facing a defensive crisis ahead of the match at Old Trafford and took exception to an innocuous question by an MUTV presenter about his resources.

“I don’t want to update you. I would like Arsenal TV to ask [Unai Emery] the same questions but they don’t, they hide everything from the inside, so why should I answer to you,” Mourinho snapped, in an apparent reference to last season when Mesut Ozil faced United despite Arsenal’s suggestions that he would not be fit.

United will fall 11 points behind fourth-placed Arsenal if they lose as the pressure mounts on Mourinho.

But while Mourinho retracted his claim that his side need “a miracle” to finish in the top four, he refused to make any predictions beyond saying he was confident they would finish above an Everton team he cited as an example of “phenomenal investment”. United are eighth, behind Everton on goal difference.

Mourinho refused to respond to reports he had branded midfielder Paul Pogba a “virus” in the dressing room after United’s 2-2 draw at Southampton on Saturday. Asked if he believed his squad were still behind him, he claimed only “dishonest” players would not pull for their manager. “If you think a player only plays when, in your words, he is behind the manager, what I have to call these players or, in this case, what you are calling them, is dishonest,” he said.

“A football player is paid – and very well paid – to be a football professional. What is that? It is to train every day to his limits, to play every game to his limits, to behave socially according to the nature of his job, to respect the millions of fans around the world and to respect the hierarchies in the club.”