Tuesday 3 January 2017 06:27, UK
Jose Mourinho insists Manchester United are not chasing records after a 2-0 success at West Ham made it six Premier League wins in a row.
The victory came with its fair share of controversy, as West Ham were forced to play more than 75 minutes with ten men, after Sofiane Feghouli was handed a straight red card for a lunging tackle on Phil Jones, while Zlatan Ibrahimovic appeared to be in an offside position when netting Manchester United's second.
Manchester United are now unbeaten in 13 games in all competitions - their longest unbeaten run since March 2013 under Sir Alex Ferguson - but Mourinho insists such stats matter little as his side close in on the top four.
"I have a feeling that we can win the next match," Mourinho told Sky Sports. "We don't chase records. We chase good performances and points.
"We know Chelsea or Tottenham are going to drop points, so we have to keep chasing. Before, we played so well, but didn't pick up the points. Now, six wins and 18 points later, it is exactly what we need."
Mourinho sympathised with the officials, insisting they are not in an enviable position, while believing Manchester United were due some luck with decisions.
"I didn't see it [red card] as I was so far away," he said. "I have had to educate myself this season, because we have had so many controversial decisions. I had to cope with so many decisions, I had to cope with Zlatan's goal being disallowed, I had to cope with a clear penalty against Crystal Palace, so many wrong decisions.
"This period is so difficult for the referees. It is fantastic for the people at home, fantastic for people who come to the stadium. For all of us, even me, it is hard."
Marcus Rashford came off the bench to set up fellow substitute Juan Mata for United's opener, and gave Havard Nordtveit a torrid time throughout the second half.
Mourinho changed his system a few times throughout the match, and explained all of his formation switches were carefully planned.
"We didn't utilise our superiority [in first half]," Mourinho added. "We were playing three against zero at times - Jones, [Michael] Carrick and [Marcus] Rojo were playing against nobody.
"They had nine, and we had seven [without those three], so we took out a defender, put Carrick at centre-back and brought on Juan Mata. We knew it would create problems.
"I knew he [Nordtveit] played 90 minutes 48 hours ago, and I knew that Rashford only played 20 minutes in the last game, and is naturally very fit, very fast and I knew he could be very important.
"He could his give us some width, and I knew it was a matter of time until we scored a goal."
