Man Utd boss Jose Mourinho glad fans now see Marouane Fellaini differently

Fellaini, much-maligned in the past, has often shown his worth since Mourinho became United manager and certainly did so as the Red Devils thrashed Palace at Old Trafford, with Juan Mata and Romelu Lukaku also getting on the scoresheet.

Asked after the Premier League contest what he had done to make Fellaini such a key figure, Mourinho said: "Just common sense, I guess.

"All managers are different. Sometimes we like players others don't. Sometimes we don't like players others like. Some players perform better with some of us than with others, and I have examples of players that didn't perform well for me and then performed well for other managers.

"It is just the fact that I think Marouane has important qualities and I try to use them depending on the situation and the team needs.

"He is a team player, a great character and we have a good relationship.

"I think only a strong character could resist the difficulties here because he had some difficult times when people didn't recognise his qualities, when probably other managers didn't like so much the qualities he has. So he had to be a strong character.

"He is a fighter, a guy with lots of pride, and I am really pleased I helped him to reach this level and to change the perception the fans have now. I'm really happy for him."

Mourinho was also asked about Mata, and said: "I need good players, I need good people. I need some people with maturity, with a big concept of team.

"I know that the new generations are more individual because this is the way the entourage and society makes them.

"So to have people like Mata, (Ander) Herrera, (Antonio) Valencia, (Nemanja) Matic - and I am just giving a few examples, I could give more - is very important because managers, we don't have an easy life now."

United, with six wins and a draw from seven league games so far this season, scored four goals in a match for the sixth time in all competitions this term - and the second time this week, having won 4-1 against CSKA Moscow in Russia on Wednesday.

Mourinho, who made five changes to his starting line-up for this fixture, added: "We are playing well.

"I don't say well for 90 minutes because sometimes we have periods where we lose a little bit our consistency, in what I call quality with our intensity.

"But it is difficult to do that for 90 minutes, and after a Champions League game. I'm really happy with the points."

In stark contrast to United's fortunes, rock-bottom Palace, beaten 5-0 at Manchester City last weekend, are the first team in English League history to lose their first seven games of the season without scoring.

Boss Roy Hodgson, who has been in charge for three of those and played Bakary Sako as a makeshift striker here in the absence of the injured Christian Benteke, said: "You add all the things together and I fear we just have to accept that we are the boxer fighting in a weight class he is not able to perhaps handle at this moment in time.

"Today we knew we were playing a team that was quite possibly out of our league, and all we could do was give it our best shot.

"We are not going to have 38 games against Man City and Man United.

"I think if we can stop the players doubting themselves too much, who knows, we may look back on this terrible spell and say it helped us build the character to help us stay in the league."