Jose Mourinho believes that Manchester United‘s top four hopes this season are “not dead”, despite dropping more points at the weekend.
After making a slow start in the Premier League, culminating in a 4-0 defeat at Chelsea back in October, United have since been in fantastic form, going into Saturday’s clash with Bournemouth unbeaten in their previous 16 top flight fixtures. However Mourinho’s men found life tough against the Cherries at Old Trafford.
After taking an early lead through Marcos Rojo, the Red Devils were pegged back by a Josh King penalty ahead of half-time, before Andrew Surman was sent off. Despite having that advantage though, they couldn’t find a way past Artur Boruc, with Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s missed penalty proving to be their best chance to win.
However Mourinho believes that United still have a chance to finish in the top four this term, regardless of their latest disappointment at Old Trafford.
“Are we dead in relation to the top four? No,” the Portuguese said (via the club’s official website). “We are not dead – there are matches to play, points to win, points to lose, points to fight for – but the reality is we are losing too many points at home.
“If you look at the points we’ve lost at home – all the matches where we draw – if you accumulate these points, you’re thinking about 10 or 12 and, with these points we wouldn’t just be speaking about the top four – we’d be speaking about the top two or the top one.”
United have scored 39 goals and conceded 22 in their 26 Premier League fixtures this season, with a shot accuracy of 50%, as they sit sixth on 49 points, three behind the top four.
Next up for them is an away clash at FC Rostov in the Europa League on Thursday night, before taking on Chelsea in the FA Cup quarter-finals at Stamford Bridge.
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