Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho in dig at 'privileged' rivals City over festive fixtures

• e-mail

Jose Mourinho has aimed a dig at Manchester United's 'privileged' title rivals, pointing out the additional day that Pep Guardiola's side have been handed in the fixture schedule.

Manchester City do not play until Wednesday night against Newcastle while United – 13 points behind the Premier League leaders – face Burnley at Old Trafford on Tuesday.

Arsenal also do not play until Thursday away at Crystal Palace and being left with less time to recover and prepare has rubbed Mourinho the wrong way.

Manchester United including Juan Mata checked into the Lowry Hotel on Christmas Day

Mata is mobbed by United supporters outside the hotel the club uses before home games 

Mata, who scored twice against Leicester pictured heading into the salubrious Lowry Hotel

Marcus Rashford heads into the Lowry on Christmas Day. United use the hotel as a base 

Jesse Lingard, who hit the post at Leicester when he should have scored, enters the Lowry 

'I'm not just saying about the privileged ones with six days to recover and to enjoy and to prepare for the next one,' Mourinho said in a Christmas Day interview.

'But also the ones with a little bit more than us, for example the ones that play after (Boxing Day). That extra day means a lot.

'It means probably they are not working today, they can be back to work tomorrow to prepare for the next day. The problem that I see here is the difference between some teams.

Defender Chris Smalling snapped entering the Lowry ahead of United's Boxing Day game

'What I call December injuries in English football, they are arriving. It depends on many factors but we open the door for what I call December injuries.'

Guardiola's City beat Bournemouth 4-0 in a 3pm kick-off on Saturday while Mourinho's United conceded a stoppage-time equaliser in a 2-2 draw at Leicester later on the night.

'I hope we play as well as we did against Leicester,' Mourinho continued. 'Because in 10 matches if you play as well as we did or create as many chances as we did, in nine matches you win 3-0 or 4-0.

Zlatan Ibrahimovich at the Lowry having trained at Old Trafford on Chistmas Day 

'What happened was what we call unpredictable football and it happened to us.

'We played so, so well, we played so creative, we created so many chances, but of course in football you have to score the goals and chances are not enough.'

Meanwhile the criticism Mourinho levelled at his United players was concerning enough in isolation. But in a wider context his accusations of their 'childish' approach in the draw at Leicester should ring even louder alarm bells.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan at the hotel. He has been subject to criticism from Mourinho before

Coincidentally, it was at the King Power Stadium under dark skies Mourinho turned his fury on his Chelsea players in December 2015. He accused them of 'betrayal' for a failure to carry out instructions after a 2-1 loss. He was sacked three days later.

This juncture at United is far from as critical, but two years on there was similar venom in the Portuguese's words and a willfulness to place blame on his team. Mourinho is not prepared to play the role of dugout babysitter amid, in his view, 'immaturity' on the pitch.

Given Mourinho's position is much stronger than it was at Chelsea, that stance spells trouble for a number of United players who it seems have tried the 54-year-old's patience too many times. The winter transfer window opens next week and Mourinho will have money to spend on finding replacements.

United staff enter the hotel with the whole squad reeling after a bad week on the road 

Beginning with Burnley, bridging the record 13-point Christmas gap to City appears impossible but Mourinho sounded in the mood to make changes for next season already.

Anthony Martial, Jesse Lingard, and Marcus Rashford all spurned glorious chances to extend a 2-1 lead brought by a Juan Mata brace and then as the minutes ticked down United's defence failed to react to the groin injury sustained by Chris Smalling, meaning the immobile defender was up against Harry Maguire when the Leicester player steered in a dramatic late equaliser.

'Half an hour after the second goal is a game to finish four, five, six one,' said Mourinho. 'And not just we missed big chances in front of goal, but easy possession to have. And then in the last minute we had players without the capacity to analyse the game, to see that Smalling was in trouble. I think a very immature team in both hands.'

Parking the bus. The United coach takes star-studded players from Old Trafford to the Lowry

Damningly, Mourinho added: 'Some players have childish decisions and time helps them to have maturity and to decide better. But some other players stay with childish decisions until the end of their career.'

Rather than putting those offending players on the naughty step to elicit a reaction, Mourinho's assessment came across as a genuine threat to get rid for good.

Gary Neville admonished Smalling for a failure to flag up his injury sooner or with greater clarity and he also suggested that when Phil Jones tried to reorganise by bringing Victor Lindelof to a central position and Ander Herrera to right-back, the Spaniard refused, signalling for Henrikh Mkhitaryan to drop back instead. 

United goalkeeper David de Gea walks into the world-renowned hotel ahead of Burnley 

'You cannot believe the lack of coordination and leadership shown at the end of that game,' Neville said. Ashley Young, who had received Mourinho' s touchline instructions, allowed Maguire to run behind him apparently in the belief Smalling would pick up.

But Mourinho's deep irritation was also the result of offensive naivety. 

Lingard was lackadaisical in hitting the post with an open goal, Martial unfocussed when ballooning over with only Kasper Schmeichel to beat, and Rashford hesitant when one on one.

Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho has aimed a dig at 'privileged' Premier League rivals 

Pressure mounts on the United boss as 'noisy neighbours' Manchester City are 13 points clear

Aside from the clear-cut chances though were countless wasted opportunities to counter effectively as 10-man Leicester pushed for a goal to add to Jamie Vardy' s opener. 

Mourinho's general style, away from home particularly, is to wait for opponents to 'break' in a defensive sense and therefore leave gaps to exploit. 

Liverpool never did at Anfield in October so Mourinho was satisfied with the point in spite of outside critique. But Leicester were most certainly fragmented at the back, only for United to fail to take full advantage.

Mourniho was furious with his players after they allowed the ten-men of Leicester to draw 2-2 

The draw at Leicester capped a bad few days for Mourinho after Bristol City beat them 2-1

Mkhitaryan was guilty in one move and Nemanja Matic in another, trying to feed Romelu Lukaku, who was clearly offside, rather than maintain possession.

The draw meant United are six points better off at this stage of the season compared to last, but with City's mountainous lead and a result that felt like defeat Mourinho was in no mood to entertain the Christmas spirit.

'You know I'm not thinking of that,' he said. 'I'm looking at this match and the only thing I can say is that it was an easy match to win. Even at half time with result 1-1 I told the players more than one time, 'The match is very easy to win.' And we didn't.'

Mourino will expect better against Burnley but it may already be too late for some.