Manchester United vs. Burnley: Jose Mourinho's Key Pre-Match Presser Quotes

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho was delighted with his team's midweek win over Manchester City and hopes the Red Devils can carry through their momentum into Saturday's Premier League clash against Burnley. 

United suffered a 4-0 hiding by Chelsea last Sunday but recovered with a 1-0 EFL Cup win against the Citizens on Wednesday, and Mourinho spoke to the media ahead of Saturday's fixture praising his men, via United's official Twitter account:

The Sun's Alex Terrell provided a transcription of Mourinho's press conference, where he said:

"

After the defeat we had to play Man City and because of that defeat the match became more than a normal cup match, more because it was City, becuase before we had such a bad defeat. Sometimes people react to a bad defeat in a negative way… but in this case we managed to find that extra effort and extra competitive mentality.

"

The defeat at Stamford Bridge stands as United's only loss in their last eight matches, winning five and drawing two, although Mourinho's side are without a Premier League win in their last three outings.

Nevertheless, Mourinho has refused to panic and brushed off the Chelsea result, choosing to examine the larger picture rather than dwell on one poor result:

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What I know is that in the last seven matches, we lost one. It’s better to lose one match 4-0 than four matches 1-0. It’s three points. Our run of results is not bad. We lost two points against Stoke [City], which was the best match by far in our season in terms of chance creation and opportunities. 

The run of results is not bad. We are a team in process, we won’t do that in 3 or 4 months, in this moment we just think about game by game.

"

Mourinho also used Friday's press conference as an opportunity to address speculation regarding winger Henrikh Mkhitaryan and why he's only started one game under his new manager this season.

Metro's Chris Winterburn provided quotes from the Portuguese, who insisted the summer signing from Borussia Dortmund will be afforded his chances when fully fit:

The United chief elaborated that he can "confuse the meaning 'fit' in English language," with Mkhitaryan still presumably building toward being truly ready in the manager's mind.

He also used examples from his spells as manager of Chelsea and Real Madrid to illustrate how different players can take different lengths of time to acclimate to their surroundings:

"

I don’t want to be misinterpreted but I don’t think he will be upset with me. Willian when he arrived at Chelsea he had problems, he went through a process and the next season he was a champion he was phenomenal and he still is. I had similar with [Angel] Di Maria when he came from Portugal. Sometimes it happens.

"

Another member of the squad who caught attention in Friday's conference was stalwart Michael Carrick, whom Mourinho singled out for praise and described as a "phenomenal" talent:

Carrick has featured five times this season but has yet to start a match in the Premier League, and it seems unlikely Burnley will be the fixture in which he finally breaks that duck.

That's due to the fact Mourinho is expecting a difficult matchup against Sean Dyche's Burnley side, who travel to Old Trafford on Saturday having beaten Everton 2-1 in their most recent result: "Even in the season at Chelsea we drew at home against Burnley, I remember we were fighting with Man City for the title and they drew at home. Burnley is the same match the same philosophy, the same mentality, it’s going to be very difficult for us."

Mkhitaryan could be in line to make just his second Premier League start against the Clarets, with Mourinho hoping three points will be enough to take his team closer to the English top flight's hierarchy.

United sit six points off the Premier League summit as things stand, but Tuesday's League Cup triumph over fierce rivals City could mark the beginning of an upturn in results for the Red Devils.