Despite a disappointing 1-1 draw with Stoke City, Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho believes his team put on its best performance of the season, even better than the 4-1 win over Leicester City just last weekend.
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“It’s simple. Best United performance all season,” Mourinho said after the match. “3 or 4-nil at halftime, 6 or 7-nil at the end of the game, but the result is 1-1. That’s football, that’s very undeserved, but I repeat, much better performance than against Leicester, because against Leicester the result made more than the performance, and today was exactly the opposite. The best performance by far; six, seven, eight great chances to win the game, even after the 1-nil.”
Stoke City goalkeeper Lee Grant, on loan from Derby and in for the benched Shay Given, put on a spectacular performance, keeping out Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Paul Pogba on numerous occasions. However, United will also feel their wastefulness cost them points as well, with Ibrahimovic striking an early chance straight at Grant, and Pogba clattering a header off the crossbar as time wound down.
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Anthony Martial scored United’s only goal just two minutes after coming on as a second-half substitute, but it was far less than United and Mourinho felt they deserved, having dominated the entire first half.