Jose Mourinho said his team should have been “smoking cigars” before Watford tried to give Manchester United a scare at Vicarage Road on Tuesday night.
And Mourinho said: “The second half should be five or 6-0. It was even even easier to score goals in the first half than the first but we missed the chances and this is football.
“Out of nothing a penalty and 3-1 and then the game is a different one. It was easy match comfortably and in the end, with the 3-2, the game is in a grey zone. Jesse had that fantastic initiative and killed the game.
“We scored great goals. But we missed the 4-0 in a great action at the end of the first half and in the second half we had great high pressure to recover the ball high and Lukaku had that one with an open goal and then Paul Pogba’s header is also a free header.
“Lots of chances but then out of nothing it’s 3-1 and then the game is different. They are full of confidence, they have nothing to lose, they have no pressure. For them, to lose 3-0 or 5-0 is exactly the same.
“So after the 3-1, they come to the game and there were a few minutes where we should be smoking cigars but we are a bit in trouble.”
The result moves United to within five points of leaders Manchester City, who play Southampton at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday. It was also a first away win in the league since September, coming at a crucial time with games against Arsenal and Manchester City to come.
“Ashley Young trains at free kicks and his conversion rate in training is good, so it was good he had the confidence to try it, after scoring the first goal,” Mourinho added to the BBC. “I was surprised that Paul Pogba gave him permission.
“At his age, Young’s playing better than ever and I couldn’t be more happy with him.”
The 32-year-old Young was delighted to end his Premier League goal drought.
“We started well in the first half and I think they started brightly, as well,” he said. “We had to dig deep. It was fantastic in the first half. Towards the end it was getting a bit nervy but Jesse has come up with the goods and got the fourth goal.
“It’s nice to get on the scoresheet. I tried to claim the goal the other day but I’ll definitely to claiming those two. It was more important to get the three points. It’s a tough place to come.”
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