Jose Mourinho backed Ed Woodward after the vice-chairman was labeled "a specialist in failure" by a airplane protest.

“You know, in the match I am not looking to the sky unless I am asking something for the guy to give me help,” said Mourinho of the pre-match show. “I didn’t see planes but Ed Woodward won this afternoon. He won 2-0.”

United was coming off a 3-0 loss to Tottenham Hotspur.

He added: “I think we start winning this match because of Old Trafford after Spurs. We lose at home, if the fans react bad, the team loses confidence, the week is not a good week, the team feels pressure and the next match is even more difficult. We lost at home, the fans were amazing to the team, the team understood that the direction was good, the result was bad.

“The week was not a sad week. It was a very good week of work and we started the week as you saw. Then the fans of course were together with the team, especially in the way the team was playing and I feel a bit sorry that we didn’t score a couple of goals in front of them because that would be magic for them.”