Jose Mourinho praises spirit of Alexis Sanchez after forward impresses on Manchester United debut: 'He has been with us for only three days, but he is an amazing addition'

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Jose Mourinho hailed Alexis Sanchez's fighting spirit after the Manchester United manager saw his new signing give him the perfect birthday present.

Just days after being announced as a United player, Sanchez laid on United's first two goals for Marcus Rashford and Ander Herrera in their 4-0 FA Cup fourth round win over Yeovil.

Substitutes Jesse Lingard and Romelu Lukaku completed a comfortable away success as Sanchez was named man of the match on his United bow.

Alexis Sanchez posed for a selfie with Jesse Lingard after Manchester United's victory

Jose Mourinho hailed Alexis Sanchez's spirit after the forward's Manchester United debut

Sanchez laid on United's first two goals in their 4-0 FA Cup fourth round win over Yeovil

Sanchez helped give Mourinho a perfect birthday present - he turned 55 on Friday

Mourinho, who turned 55 on Friday, said: 'I'm very happy with Alexis, his performance was no surprise to anyone. He has had three-and-a-half years in the Premier League and there are no questions to ask over him in English football.

'He has been with us for only three days, but he is an amazing addition. He needed to play, but he wasn't ready for 90 minutes and I was thinking maybe 60 or 65. He will get better the more time he gets to understand his players and they can understand him.'

United eased to victory at Huish Park, but led only 1-0 at the break through Rashford's strike. Mourinho felt some of his players were the target for over-the-top physicality from Yeovil. Home defender Nathan Smith wiped out Sanchez in the first half, but escaped with just a booking.

Sanchez's pass caused confusion in the Yeovil box and Marcus Rashford to open the scoring

A slide rule pass from the Chilean also helped make it 0-2, Ander Herrera finishing

'We love the FA Cup and we love coming here to stadiums like this, but sometimes players need protection,' Mourinho said.

'I can understand the decision not to give a red card because this was a big day for the club and 10 against 11 would have been unfair. Alexis is tough. He will bring us this extra maturity and class and I was happy with everything he did.'

Sanchez was the jewel in United's crown, Lingard and Lukaku both rising from the bench late on to put a gloss on the final scoreline with two goals in the final few minutes.

It means United – who rested a host of first-choice players with Wednesday's clash at Tottenham in mind – progressed to the next round.

Defender Nathan Smith wiped out Sanchez in the first half, but escaped with just a booking

Mourinho said: 'It was a professional performance. The team had experience of playing here a few years ago and they knew it would be difficult until we scored the first goal.

'The first half was difficult and Yeovil were very organised. I could hear their head coach talking to their players telling them what to do, but the team knew what to expect.

'The attitude was correct and in the second half we had control of the game, the possession, the space for transition and then more quality and intensity. We killed the game.'

While Smith was perhaps lucky to avoid red, Yeovil did have their moments, especially before the break. Sam Surridge put the poor Marcos Rojo under pressure on several occasions and home left back Ryan Dickson also produced an impressive individual display.

Yeovil boss Darren Way admitted his team were always going to struggle in this game

Ultimately, the League Two strugglers were outclassed on their big day. A sell-out crowd of 9,195 nonetheless proved that the magic of the FA Cup remains alive and well.

Yeovil boss Darren Way admitted his team were always going to struggle to recover after Rashford put them 1-0 down. He said: 'I'm very proud and I thought for 20 minutes we caused United problems. The game could have been different if we had taken a few of our chances.

'If I could have one disappointment it's the goal we conceded just before half time. We lived the dream for 90 minutes against the best team in the world, managed by the best coach in the world.

'I said to the players they'll never get an opportunity like this again and told them they have to go to a whole new level, but I thought Sanchez was absolutely world class and as much as we tried to stop their best players, it was difficult despite my boys giving absolutely everything.'