Jose Mourinho warns his Manchester United players to 'be ready for difficult roads and roadworks' after racing to the top of the Premier League table

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Jose Mourinho chose a motoring analogy to warn of problems ahead after Manchester United continued their flying start to the League title race.

United matched their thumping win over West Ham last weekend with another 4-0 victory at Swansea on Saturday, scoring four or more goals in their opening two League games for the first time since 1907.

Mourinho is refusing to get carried away and pointed out that his players had to be prepared for the games when things did not go their way.  

Jose Mourinho refused to get carried away despite Manchester United's 4-0 win at Swansea

Romelu Lukaku continued his excellent form by scoring United's second goal at Swansea

‘In this moment everything is going in our favour,’ he said. ‘But it’s not always motorway.

‘You always find difficult roads and roadworks, and we have to be ready.’

Having scored four goals in the Premier League just once in Mourinho’s first season in charge at Old Trafford – against next weekend’s opponents Leicester City – United have managed it twice in seven days. That last happened at the start of a campaign 110 years ago, but the Portuguese coach was more interested in recent statistics.

‘I prefer to say we started last season with two matches, six points, and we finished sixth,’ he added.

‘It’s not a lesson, it’s a reality of football. Two matches are not the end of the world for people that lose, and it’s not paradise for people that win.

‘I am happy, of course, and the quality of the performance gives me even more confidence. I think the team is confident. In both matches, winning 1-0 at half-time, we didn’t start the second half looking like we had to keep a clean sheet to win.’

Eric Bailly is congratulated after opening his Manchester United account in the first-half

Paul Pogba celebrates after scoring United's third goal late on at the Liberty Stadium

The clean sheet rarely looked under threat as Swansea failed to find the net for the second game in a row.

It emphasised how much Paul Clement’s side are missing Gylfi Sigurdsson, and the Swansea boss is anxious to spend some of the £45million that Everton have paid for the Iceland star.

‘The moment Gylfi is going, you know you need to do that,’ said Clement.

‘When you haven’t got Gylfi in the team and [Fernando] Llorente and Ki [Sung-Yueng] who finished last season really strongly, we are weaker.Absolutely we need more quality players to come in so we’ve got a chance of being competitive this season.

‘It’s a very fluid situation at the moment. There are texts, emails and telephone calls going back and forward between various parties.

‘The sooner we do it the better, but it could go late in the window.

‘The necessity is there. It’s clear we need to do some good business.’

Anthony Martial rounded off United's late goal blitz and set the seal on a 4-0 victory

Mourinho used a motoring analogy to suggest that tougher challenges lie ahead for United