Jose Mourinho: To beat Tottenham you have to play very well

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho pinpointed the improvement of his team after they beat Tottenham 1-0 at Old Trafford on Sunday.

"After so many games of playing well and not winning, we needed more the points than performance. But, against a team like Tottenham, you don't get the result without a performance," the Portuguese coach commented after the match. 

"And we played very well. Tottenham for me are a very complete team who defend well and attack well so, to win against them, we needed to play very well, which we did."

Henrick Mkhitaryan scored the only goal of the game but United created enough chances to win by more goals, according to Mourinho. 

"The problem is we didn't score [more] goals. Mkhitaryan was the man of the match, but [Hugo] Lloris was second," ge added. 

"But we still have our ambitions this year. Winning this match puts us in a position where we can feel them. We can be in touch. 

"Fourth and fifth, we can feel them with so many matches to go. So we can say that this result was very important for that. We were six points behind Tottenham so, if we'd lost today, it would have been nine -- and nine is more difficult than three."

Mkhitaryan ended the match with an injury but Mourinho hopes it's nothing important: "We don't think it's a serious injury.

"We don't think maybe Henrikh can play for a week. I was afraid it was serious but looks like it's not. He does not need surgery.

"Maximum a couple of weeks. It doesn't look like something that is very dangerous or difficult. He brings everything I want an attacker to play. Maybe one week out and it is better to be fresh for Boxing Day."