Jose Mourinho claims Manchester United are being “punished” by the Premier League's festive fixture schedule.
The Old Trafford giants' boss is angry his side have the fewest rest days of any top-flight club during the busy Christmas programme.
Mourinho was in full-on Grinch mode on Friday, complaining at the favouritism shown to other clubs in terms of the scheduling of festive games, while claiming his Red Devils have been made to suffer.
Asked before the weekend trip to Leicester if he was concerned about having the fewest non-match days – six - over the festive fixture period, he replied: “Yes. But we're not the only ones.
“There are other teams in the same situation as we are, and Leicester is one of them in the same situation as we are.
“We did the simple objective study on that and there is a big gap, a really big gap, between some clubs and other clubs.
“There are clearly the ones that are really privileged and there are clearly another group of the ones that are really punished by the decisions of the calendar.
“And there are another group in the middle of it, where I would like to be. I know I would never be in the top group but in the middle group we would like to be.”
Asked about the potential impact on his players of so few rest-days between matches, the Special One said: “It’s not just in my squad, it’s in every squad that has these days in between matches.'
And when pushed if he felt the fixtures had been deliberately scheduled to make it tougher for United, he said: “It’s a good question. You want me to be punished, right?”
That was a reference to Mourinho being warned by the FA for talking about referees before games, after he did just that ahead of the Manchester derby.
The 54-year-old tried to tread a diplomatic path through the subject of the fixture scheduling over Christmas, but clearly feels United are at a major disadvantage.
They trail leaders Manchester City by 11 points entering the weekend and could see that grow to 14 by the time they kick off on Saturday night as Pep Guardiola's side host Bournemouth earlier in the day.
But Mourinho is refusing to concede the title race is over.
He said: “We're in the race that only ends for us in May, when we play against Watford at Old Trafford.
“When we play against Watford at Old Trafford, we finish the game and then it’s finished.
“Then, do we have FA Cup final to play? If so, then we have one more to play.
“Do we have a Champions League final to play? If we do, we have one more game.”