Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho aimed another dig at rivals Arsene Wenger and Pep Guardiola over their injured stars after his side’s 2-1 Champions League win over CSKA Moscow.
United booked their place in the last 16 after coming back from a goal down through Romelu Lukaku and Marcus Rashford.
But focus was already firmly on Sunday’s visit of Manchester City, a match in which defeat for United will leave them 11 points off the league leaders.
In his post-match press conference following the victory over CSKA, Mourinho was already debating City’s injury pronouncements, hinting he feared a repeat of the shock team news that had greeted his arrival at the Emirates last week.
Mourinho offered back-handed praise of Arsenal’s medical team after Saturday’s 3-1 win over Arsenal – a match in which Alexandre Lacazette started despite having been “certainly” ruled out by Arsene Wenger – and repeated his criticism on Tuesday whilst also alluding to the unclear injury that Guardiola claims will rule Silva out of the Manchester derby.
“The truth is Eric Bailly no chance for the weekend,” he said.
“Phil Jones, a chance. Fellaini, a chance. Zlatan, a big chance. Matic is injured but will play for sure. I'm telling the truth. He is injured but he will play for sure. Carrick no chance.”
In Pictures | Champions League gameweek 6 | 2017-18
“It's the truth. No stories of Lacazette, David Silva. All the truth.”
City boss Guardiola confirmed yesterday that Silva had “felt uncomfortable” after his 83rd minute goal in Sunday’s 2-1 win over West Ham and labelled him a doubt for Sunday’s game but declined to offer further clarification on the nature of the injury.
