Manchester United boss José Mourinho has praised his side's "control" in their 2-1 victory over West Bromwich Albion on Sunday.
The Red Devils did not put in a vintage showing at the Hawthorns but goals from Romelu Lukaku and Jesse Lingard in the first half secured the win. Gareth Barry scored late in the day but United came away deserved winners and Mourinho was delighted with how his team dealt with the threat posed by Alan Pardew's men.
'Today was important'
Mourinho said: "Today was really important to see the team in a difficult place to play the way they did. I think we had a lot of control. If we don’t control the game the way we did, we would be in trouble with their style of play which is difficult especially if they have the ball a lot."
"We were good in controlling that. We were good in having the ball. I think [Nemanja] Matić, Jesse [Lingard] in this position were good. They were good to give us lots of passing lines and keep the ball in attacking areas," the Portuguese continued.
The Reds were subjected to numerous difficult situations from set pieces and despite West Brom profiting once, Mourinho was delighted with how his team organised themselves despite having key men missing through injury
He told: "They [West Brom] knew that they could score a goal in a set piece at any time. They are so strong and have such a big advantage. For us, without [Paul] Pogba, without [Marouane] Fellaini, without Zlatan [Ibrahimovic], three important guys in the aerial defensive game, we knew that they would have an advantage."
"That’s why we played the way we did, having the ball and moving ball, keeping the ball all the time and not having too many corners and free kicks against us and we managed to do that."
'The game becomes a bit different'
The 54-year-old also commented how impressed he was with his side's showing to close out the victory especially after Gareth Barry had pulled a goal back for the hosts.
Mourinho said: "In that situation, they score and then the game becomes a bit different. Even being under pressure with the 2-1 result, we still managed to have the ball, to bring the ball forwards and not having to suffer too much in the last minutes."
'There is no context'
Despite the victory at the Hawthorns, a yawning chasm of 11 points remains between Manchester United and league leaders Manchester City. However, Mourinho insists he will only focus on the title race at the end of the season.
He concluded: "For me there is no context. For me the context is one game. We want to win, we try to win. We are happy to win. We are not happy to lose.
"Every match, we go. Every match we try to win. We don’t want to go on holidays. We want to go until the last match."