Jose Mourinho and Chris Hughton

Jose: 'Happy' Brighton will be hard to beat

Saturday 17 March 2018 08:55

Jose Mourinho says Manchester United and Brighton & Hove Albion are in similar form ahead of tonight's Emirates FA Cup clash.

Brighton lost for the first time since 20 January last week, when Everton beat them 2-0 at Goodison Park, and the Reds boss likened that to his team’s own run being halted by Sevilla. In fact, the last six results for each side have been identical, with four wins and one draw preceding the latest outcome, a loss.
“An isolated defeat doesn’t reflect the period,” commented Mourinho in his pre-match interview with MUTV.

“The situations are not with big distances [between them]. We beat Chelsea and Liverpool and then we lost against Sevilla and it looks now that we are a disaster.
 
“In a club like ours, with our dimension, it is quite easy to make us go from hero to villain. With Brighton, that is not happening so their feeling is for sure that they are in a good moment.

“They have a very good team playing with great stability, with happiness according to the results, so it’s going to be hard.”
Lukaku and co found Brighton difficult to break down during the last meeting in November
The United manager also spoke highly of Brighton’s performance when they lost 1-0 at Old Trafford back in November and of their quest to remain in the top flight next season.

He continued: “They now have more experience in the Premier League at the highest level and are obviously more confident because of their position in the table.

“They can see light at the end of the tunnel and are almost there so it’s brilliant work by Chris [Hughton]. I really believe in them staying in the top division and now they are fighting to go to Wembley in the Cup."

MUTV.com will show Jose's full interview in the live Match Day show on Saturday from 17:45 GMT.

Early team news: United v Brighton

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The full story on Jose Mourinho's squad update, ahead of Saturday night's crucial FA Cup quarter-final.