SPORTS EPL: Arsenal were lucky but we don’t care – Mourinho

Jose Mourinho
Jose Mourinho claimed Arsenal were lucky to end Arsene Wenger’ s woeful record against his old rival , but the Manchester United manager insisted he wasn ’ t bothered because the Europa League is more important .
Gunners boss Wenger was able to celebrate a first Premier League victory over Mourinho at the 13th attempt as Arsenal won 2- 0 at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday .
Goals from Granit Xhaka and Danny Welbeck shattered United’ s 25-match unbeaten run in the league as sixth -placed Arsenal closed the gap on fourth - placed Manchester City to six points with a game in hand .
Fifth-placed United are four points behind City with three games left , but Mourinho had already surrendered in the top-four race after sending out a weakened team against Arsenal as he prioritised the midweek Europa League semi -final second leg against Celta Viga.
United, who hold a 1-0 lead from the first leg , will qualify for the Champions League if they win the Europa League, so Mourinho wasn ’ t too concerned with the result against Arsenal.
Not that it stopped him getting a dig in at his old rival Wenger after Arsenal’ s fortuitous opening goal saw Xhaka ’ s shot deflect in off Ander Herrera.
“ Of course we knew we were not coming in our maximum power . That ’ s a decision , ” Mourinho said .
“ We want to try to win the Europa League. It ’ s more important than finishing fourth . We needed to rest players.
“ I ’ m disappointed with the result, not the performance . We lost because we didn ’ t score and we had great chances to score before them .
“ They had luck with that first goal. I can’ t ask anymore from my players who haven ’ t played a minute for several weeks.
“ The team was good, organised , we played to win and Arsenal weren ’ t better than us in my opinion . ”
After a turbulent season that featured calls for his resignation from angry Arsenal fans, Wenger could have revelled in a rare upbeat moment this term.
But the Frenchman opted against taunting Mourinho , preferring to urge his players , who are also in the FA Cup final against Chelsea , to finish the season strongly.
“ We have had many draws ( against Mourinho) as well and there were some fantastic teams that we played against . It is not manager against manager , ” he said .
“ It was a patiently built win where in the first half you could see we were a bit nervous , in the second half we took the edge off and scored the goals .
“ We still have a mathematical chance but we need some help . But the best help we can get is by winning our own games . ”