Tottenham Hotspur head coach, Jose Mourinho has claimed that Man United could have gone down to eight men against his side today at Old Trafford.
The Red Devils had one man sent off halfway through the first 45 when Anthony Martial was given his marching orders just before a Spurs corner was taken.
Replays showed that, as players jostled in the box, Martial hit out at Erik Lamela’s face, with the Argentine going down and certainly letting the referee know about it.
While Martial saw red, Lamela got away with the fact that he was the one to hit out at Martial first, perhaps saved by the fact that it was not in the Frenchman’s face.
However, Mourinho claimed that United could have seen their numbers depleted even further, mentioning both Luke Shaw and Paul Pogba.
Shaw was booked for a cynical challenge on Lucas Moura late in the game as he chose to crunch the Brazilian rather than letting him run past into the box.
Mourinho said (Football London): “I didn’t watch it. For sure, for sure, for sure, Manchester United could have ended the match with eight players. For sure they could end the match with eight players. I can say because some of the reactions were not far from me and easy to see. But I agree with Anthony Taylor for not showing more red cards to them because it would be a disastrous situation for them.
“So for example, that Luke Shaw red card… ok that’s a bit… The situation between Lamela, Pogba and Martial I don’t know. I don’t know. What I know is that before that we were winning, we were dominating, we were ultra-confident. And that’s the only thing that made the game easier. But the game was in our hands.”
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