Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho insisted his team “deserved” their 2-1 win against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park, describing his players as “super-dominant” in the latter stages.
United defender Marcos Rojo made a reckless challenge but was not sent off by referee Craig Pawson before the impressive Paul Pogba then put the visitors 1-0 ahead with a goal that looked offside and involved a handball from Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the build-up.
Palace’s James McArthur levelled the scores, with United then denied a penalty — when Joe Ledley handled in the area — and Juan Mata soon had a goal disallowed for offside, before Pogba brilliantly supplied Ibrahimovic late on to seal the win.
Mourinho, who would not comment on the referee, told BT Sport: “We deserved it. We were the best team. They had a little reaction and scored in that period. Then we had the best period in the game. In the last 20 minutes, we were super-dominant. We created a lot, showed big desire.”
Rojo also escaped a red card in the first half of United’s last away game in the league, which ended in a 1-1 draw at Everton. Mourinho, though, refused to criticise the defender, who continued at centre-back against Palace alongside Phil Jones.
“Marcos Rojo is playing phenomenal. Phil Jones is playing phenomenal,” Mourinho said. “I didn’t discuss the Danny Rose tackle. I didn’t discuss the David Luiz tackle. I am not going to discuss the Marcos Rojo tackle. He is an aggressive, clean player, playing probably his best football.”
United defender Eric Bailly suffered a knee problem during the game but Mourinho said he does not know the extent of the problem.
The Portuguese said: “It is not the same knee, it is the other one, so it is not previous injury. He has a problem, we don’t know the dimension. He showed character to try and try until he reached the limit.”
Discussing United’s form, Mourinho said that they would be “close to the top of the league” if they had not dropped so many points by drawing games which they had dominated.
United’s second Premier League victory in a row takes their unbeaten league run to seven and Mourinho believes that his players’ efforts have merited the turn-around in results.
“I think the players they deserve that,” he said in his news conference. “That is what you have to do. Even if this game finished 1-1, I would have the same feeling, it is difficult.
“The players they reached some limits, they were tired, there were some injuries, Zlatan told me he was tired but they gave everything they could. The boys they did phenomenal against a difficult team. The boys deserved the late happiness.
“Two victories means six draws. The reality is that I focus on performances, they have been very good for a long time.
“The players deserve this happiness, home and away. We are looking at teams that desperately need points to get out of relegation.”
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