Mourinho: “Marcus Rashford played fantastically well”

On Sunday, he flipped that model on its head.

And Mourinho clearly relished getting one over them at Old Trafford, delighting United fans by pointing to their badge as he walked into the tunnel.

Chelsea’s immediate attention now switches to the FA Cup but, interestingly, they play in-form Spurs in their semi-final at Wembley next Saturday. “We gave them double problems”, he told reporters.

The Portuguese was not to be denied this time as Marcus Rashford, paired with Jesse Lingard up front while a jaded Zlatan Ibrahimovic was rested, finished coolly after seven minutes.

And Mourinho was thrilled with the display of his striker in the 2-0 victory, as well as highlighting the contributions of centre-backs Eric Bailly and Marcos Rojo.

Chelsea might be starting to wobble.

Watze said: “I think he will stay with us”. However, he was withdrawn and replaced by Kurt Zouma.

“After a defeat it’s not right to go into this situation”.

Well marked by Herrera, but it handed Hazard a potential opportunity he failed to seize; had the Belgian shown more movement and dragged his marker into different areas of the pitch it might have created space for his team-mates and left United stretched.

This time he did not get any joy at all, but Chelsea’s problems at Old Trafford this time were not just because Herrera did a much better job than Phil Jones managed in that match.

“I think we played really well, a very solid performance”. I don’t know if the ball touched my hand or not, but it was not my intention.

Chelsea’s first shot on goal came just before half-time when Costa blazed wide from 30 yards.

When Chelsea tried to find Costa, their passes seemed to be too slow and too obvious. “The kid played very well and again”.

The two defenders were genuinely excellent from start to finish as they registered an impressive clean sheet against the Premier League leaders, who have notably scored 65 goals in total this campaign.

Sky Sports highlighted Herrera’s expert defensive performance, capturing footage of him following Hazard from midfield into a central defensive performance and then across to left back.

“They totally controlled a team full of fantastic players, who are creative and fast”.

It was a signature win for Mourinho near the end of his first season at United. Mourinho might have explained that Zlatan was exhausted after Thursday’s exertions, but in truth he would have sent him out to start anyway if he really thought Rashford’s game wasn’t better suited to the plan he had for countering the league leaders.

Many will have been surprised by the drop in performance from Conte’s side, but many more will have been surprised at the performance of Mourinho’s side considering Thursday’s draw in Belgium and the team selection and United continued to push the title favourites.