Manchester United manager José Mourinho has stated that the title race is not over for The Red Devils, as they managed to pull out a narrow 1-0 win over AFC Bournemouth on Wednesday night.

If it was over I would be on holiday

It has been more than a solid season to the campaign for United, however, their bitter city rivals Manchester City have been on another level this season, with Pep Guardiola's side having an 11-point gap at the top of the Premier League.

Sunday's Manchester derby victory could prove significant come May as it looks more likely that the title will be arriving at the Etihad Stadium, with Mourinho even admitting post-match that he believes that there is a "significant distance" between the two sides.

However United looked to continue the pressure on City with Wednesday's narrow win over The Cherries, and when asked about Sunday's comments he proclaimed that the race for the title will be "over in May".

“I said we play match after match," Mourinho told his post-match press conference. "And the next we have to try to win, we have a difficult one at West Brom and we try match after match."

“It is only over in May," the coach added. "If it is over now I go on holiday to Brazil or Los Angeles.”

Others deserve the chance to play

The clash with Eddie Howe's men saw the opportunity for some players to get rare appearances with Scott McTominay and Luke Shaw in the starting XI, but one face that was missing and that has been missing for some time is Henrikh Mkhitaryan.

After a good start to the campaign the Armenian has seriously lacked form, and that has shown in his appearances, failing to appear in seven of the last eight matchday squads with the omission being the 1-0 win over Brighton & Hove Albion in which he made a substitute appearance.

When asked about his absence from the squad Mourinho stated the amount of options he has had in the midfield and attack, and currently having Mkhitaryan would mean taking a chance away from someone who deserve the chance to play.

“I can only have six [outfield] players on the bench and I try to have some balance on the bench," he said on Mkhitaryan's absence. "I had two defenders and [Daley] Blind who can play in different areas. I had Ashley Young to cover me all of the wing and the wing-back position."

“I had [Ander] Herrera as a midfield player," the coach proclaimed. "Zlatan [Ibrahimovic] as a striker and Marcus [Rashford] as a second striker and winger."

"I played [Anthony] Martial, [Juan] Mata and [Jesse] Lingard in the team," Mourinho concluded. "To have Micki means that I don’t have one of them and, in this moment, I believe the other ones they deserve [the chance to play].”

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About the author
Danial  Kennedy
Award-winning sports journalism graduate. Currently studying a PR Masters at the University of Sunderland. Writing for VAVEL since August 2014. Twitter - @ddkjournalism.