Mourinho reacts to 1-0 win over Tottenham

Jose Mourinho praised his Manchester United players’ performance, solidarity and defensive resolve after Sunday’s vital 1-0 win over rivals Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League.

Here are the main points from the manager’s post-match interview with MUTV’s Stewart Gardner…

AN IMPORTANT WIN
"We have been playing so well but not getting results. We needed the result today, even if the performance could be not as good as the others. But that was not the case. I think the performance was even better than the others because we were playing against a very good team. A team that, for me, is the one that I prefer in the Premier League because of the way they play football, defensively and offensively. So even more credit to the players for that."

THOUGHTS ON MKHITARYAN’S GOAL
"We recovered the ball high up the pitch, we were objective with that transition and counter attack, we scored a fantastic goal and it was so important for us in the end. But once more, the goalkeeper [Hugo Lloris] was not the Man of the Match, because Mkhitaryan deserved that, but he could have been too... and also the post! For the way we play, we don’t deserve to suffer, we don't deserve to arrive in the last 30 minutes with our hearts in our hands. We deserved to be enjoying the match and we cannot enjoy the match when we are under pressure."

INJURY UPDATE ON MKHITARYAN
"It looks like the next match is a no, but it looks like it is nothing that is really dangerous or that needs surgery, so hopefully we will probably have Micki on Boxing Day [against Sunderland]."

PRAISE FOR THE DEFENSIVE EFFORT
"The team was very good, the effort was by everyone. The way we defended set-pieces was a team effort. I think it is fair to say that Phil Jones and Marcos Rojo were magnificent and obviously surrounded by a team that is organised with a big solidarity, giving everything to keep a clean sheet that gave us points."

TIME TO GO ON A RUN
"Now we are sixth in the table, our position didn’t change, but we reduced three points from Tottenham and from Manchester City. So it was not a bad weekend for us, especially because our match at home was one of those when a draw would be something normal, according to the projection of both teams."

WIN IS FOR FELLAINI
"I want to dedicate this victory to Fellaini because he deserves it," Mourinho told Sky Sports. "In the last match [Everton], it was him that was involved in the loss of two points [conceding a penalty] and that's why I want to make it clear he is an important player for me."