Jose Mourinho says Manchester United need more success under his management in the coming years. Mourinho won the EFL Cup and Europa League in his first year at Old Trafford and has an FA Cup final against Chelsea in three weeks to look forward to, while he is close to securing United’s best Premier League finish since Sir Alex Ferguson retired. But speaking after United’s 2-1 win over Arsenal on Super Sunday, which confirmed a top-four finish, United boss Mourinho said the club need more to be considered as successful as he wishes.
“I think if we finish second it’s the first time for five years, since Sir Alex left,” he said. “OK, progress, progress at many levels, but not enough to be first instead of second, and not enough to win the Champions League instead of the Europa League. “But enough to be stable, win some trophies, reach some finals, but we need more.” Asked whether or not the Premier League will be more important than the Champions League next season, Mourinho said: “I think we always say the most important is the one you win. When I won the Champions League I say the Champions League is most important for me. When I won the leagues, the leagues were more important for me.” “And when I win nothing, I say winning is not important!” he jokingly added.
Marouane Fellaini struck in the 91st minute at Old Trafford, after former United midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan had cancelled out Paul Pogba’s opener. It was Arsene Wenger’s last game for Arsenal at Old Trafford, and Mourinho said a draw would have perhaps been fair. He told Sky Sports: “I think if it was a draw it wouldn’t be unfair. I think they did a good game. No pressure for them, but stability, quality, they defended well, the two young centre-backs did very, very well. “Of course we were the team that tried to win, had a few more chances, in the last 20 minutes tried to win, but that’s normal. It was a positive game, and in the end we were a bit lucky to score in the last minutes but we were strong in the last 20. “I think for 70 minutes there was not a clear difference between both teams. We were playing obviously in the search of points we need, and Arsenal wasn’t. They are in a similar situation to what we were last year, where the focus is on Europa League semi-finals.”