Arsenal were not better than us – Mourinho speaks as 25-game unbeaten run ends

Manchester United boss, Jose Mourinho, has claimed that Arsenal were not the better side,despite losing 2-0 to Arsene Wenger’s men on Sunday .

Granit Xhaka and Danny Welbeck scored in the second half, as the Gunners took all three points, condemning United to a first defeat in 26 Premier League games.

The result leaves United in fifth spot, four points behind local rivals Manchester City, with just three games to play.

Mourinho admits they cannot finish in the top four anymore and all they have is the Europa League.

“Yeah, all on the Europa League,” Mourinho said afterwards.

“Like we did today, we tried to play for a result.

“You can tell me we didn’t play with the best players, or the first choice at the moment, but you can’t say we didn’t try to win the game. And that’s what we’re going to try and do in the next three Premier League matches.”

Mourinho also refused to blame his much-changed line-up for the defeat at the Emirates.

“I liked very, very much individual performances and I liked [them] collectively,” he added.

“We lost because we didn’t score and we had great chances to. They had the luck of [the first] goal.

“Apart from that, I cannot ask more from players who do not play one minute of football in the past seven weeks like Smalling and Mata. They were amazing the way they performed.

“The kid [Axel Tuanzebe], the same. I think he did an amazing job and I think Alexis [Sanchez] knows his name because the kid really played very well.

“It was difficult for me to manage the game because the players that I wanted to replace are the players that, in principle, start the game on Thursday.

“So, difficult to manage it but I think, in principle, the team was good, was organised, played to win and defended well.

“Arsenal were not better than us in my opinion but congratulations.”