Mourinho: One game at a time for United

Dec 1, 2017 - 7:03 PM Jose Mourinho has been taking Bjorn Borg's lead as he keeps his focus only on Manchester United's trip to Arsenal rather than the Premier League title race.

The Portuguese has emphasised he has a one-game-at-a-time philosophy - and likened it to the way tennis great Borg was coached.

Ahead of Saturday's game at the Emirates Stadium, United are eight points behind leaders Manchester City in second place, while Arsenal are fourth.

Mourinho said: "I play a game at a time and I think that's the way to do it.

"I was watching an interesting movie, Bjorn Borg versus John McEnroe, and Borg's coach was telling him all the time: 'One point at a time, think just about one point'.

"And I tell my players: 'Think just about the game'.

"I always say this. It doesn't matter what comes after, or what happened before. It is just this game. So now it is Arsenal.

"We don't think how many points we are in front of them (four), how many we are behind the leaders. It is just Arsenal."

Since appointing Mourinho, United have faced fellow 'big six' rivals away seven times in the league and not won once, securing three points and scoring only one goal in matches against Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester City, Arsenal and Tottenham.

But asked if it was worth taking a risk in the crunch showdown at Arsenal, Mourinho said: "It depends what you think about risk.

"I think in the beginning of football, the guy that decided to say 'defenders', 'attackers' was bad. Because everybody has to defend and attack, especially in modern football.

"You can say what you want, you can analyse in the perspective you want to, but for me it is simple.

"My goalkeeper needs to know how to attack, and my striker needs to know how to defend.

"When we have the ball we are going to attack with 11 players and when Arsenal have the ball we will defend with 11 players."

United will be without injured trio Phil Jones, Eric Bailly and Marouane Fellaini, while Nemanja Matic is a doubt due to a muscular problem.

Source: AAP