Jose Mourinho admitted his players were "too tired to think" despite overcoming West Ham United 2-0 at London Stadium.
A packed New Year's English Premier League schedule has forced most clubs to play two games in three days. United defeated Middlesbrough on New Year's Eve but struggled to break down West Ham on Monday night, despite a red card for midfielder Sofiane Feghouli on his league debut. Second-half goals from Juan Mata and Zlatan Ibrahimovic eventually gave United its sixth consecutive Premier League victory.
"I think it was not a very good performance," Mourinho said when asked to sum up the game. "It is very difficult to play football in these circumstances, within 48 hours. It is amazing for the fans around the world. Everybody has the Premier League, and I am more than happy for that.
"But it is very hard for the players. Not just hard for the team with ten but the team with 11. For the team with ten, they have to run a lot. But when you have one player more you also need to think very well. And my players were too tired to think well. [They made] lots of wrong decisions. When you are fresh you play it simple. When you are not fresh you play complicated. Especially in the first half, everything was complicated."
United has now gone 11 games unbeaten in the league, a run of form it had not managed since the days of Sir Alex Ferguson.
But it benefited from Feghouli's controversial dismissal by referee Mike Dean, who deemed a crunching challenge with United defender Phil Jones to be two-footed.
Dean's assistants then missed flagging Zlatan Ibrahimovic offside, as the Swede pounced on a loose ball in the West Ham box for his 13th Premier League goal of the season. Mourinho refused to comment on either decision.
Asked if decisions had gone his way, Mourinho said: "My decisions? The decisions to play Mata at half time and [Marcus] Rashford later? Thank you, thank you very much.
"I cannot comment on that decision. I cannot also comment on [Cheikou] Kouyate's tackle on [Henrikh] Mkhitaryan, I cannot comment."
United is now one point behind Arsenal, which occupies the final UEFA Champions League qualifying place.
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