Jose Mourinho thinks Manchester United are worthy of second in Premier League

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has hit back at his team's critics, saying they are clearly best of the rest behind Manchester City.

Premier League leaders City are 16 points clear at the top of the table but, after Saturday's 2-0 defeat of Swansea, second-placed United are two points clear of Liverpool and have a game in hand.

Mourinho's men look certain to improve on last season's sixth-place finish but the manager feels other sides are given more credit than his squad.

"Manchester City is not important for me," he said.

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"Important for me is that, since the moment we left the first position and went to second, we stayed there for the whole of the season.

"We deserve to finish second in spite of what you can say, the criticisms you can make.

"You all say the third, the fourth, the fifth, the sixth are all better than us, but they are not better than us because we have more points than them.

"We are going to fight. Seven matches to go, we are going to fight to finish second."

Mourinho was joined at his press conference by his fellow Portuguese boss Carlos Carvalhal, who has taken Swansea to 15th, three points clear of the drop zone.

They were bottom of the table when he took charge in December and Mourinho said: "This guy is going to keep Swansea in the Premier League.

"He is the manager of the season because they were dead and he is going to save them!"

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