Mourinho Defends Decision To Play Martial

Manchester United manager, Jose Mourinho defended his decision to play Anthony Martial instead Alexis Sanchez after a 3-1 loss away to West Ham on Saturday condemned Manchester United to a third defeat in seven Premier League games — their worst start to a domestic campaign in nearly 30 years.

United have 10 points from seven league games, the last time they started worse was in 1989/90, in the old First Division, though they also collected just 10 points in the first seven games of David Moyes’ ill-fated reign. This latest reverse added to the pressure on under-fire manager Mourinho.

“For many months people are asking for Martial,” Mourinho told BT Sport about his choice of attackers. “This week it was time to agree and to say let’s give a chance to Martial and let’s leave Alexis out.”

United, who kicked off eight points adrift of leaders Liverpool, were behind as early as the fifth minute at the London Stadium, when Anderson opened the scoring for West Ham.

And they were 2-0 down before half-time when Andriy Yarmalenko’s shot from inside the box deflected off Victor Lindelof for an own-goal.

Barely 60 seconds after midfielder Paul Pogba — whose stand-off with Mourinho during a training session earlier this week featured heavily on social media — was substituted, United cut the deficit through Marcus Rashford’s 71st-minute goal.

But hopes this might spark a major recovery by the visitors were soon dashed when Marko Arnautovic — who played under Mourinho at Inter Milan — restored the Hammers’ two-goal lead three minutes later.

Victory saw West Ham continue to climb the table after starting the season with four straight league defeats under new manager Manuel Pellegrini.

Arnautovic was in no doubt the Hammers had earned their victory.

“We have to do our job and we did it excellently, and that is why we deserved to win,” he said.

As for Mourinho, Arnautovic added: “I have nothing to say. I look at my team, whatever the other team is doing is not our stuff.”