José Mourinho defended Marcos Rojo after the Crystal Palace manager Alan Pardew insisted that the Manchester United defender should have been sent off for a first-half challenge on Wilfried Zaha.
The incident marked one of a number of contentious decisions made by Craig Pawson, the referee, with Pardew also insistent that United’s opening goal in their 2-1 victory should have been ruled out.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic admitted that he handled the ball to set up Paul Pogba, who appeared to be in an offside position before he put United ahead just before half-time. In the second half, it was Mourinho who was entitled to feel hard done by, with Pawson missing a clear handball by Joe Ledley, the Palace midfielder, inside his penalty area shortly before an effort from Juan Mata was ruled out after a marginal offside call.
Rojo’s two-footed lunge recalled the centre back’s challenge on Everton’s Idrissa Gueye ten days previously when the United player was widely regarded to have been fortunate to escape with a caution. “From the sidelines, it did look bad,” Pardew said. “He jumps two-footed and we go to all these meetings where that’s a red card.
“The first goal was a call the linesman should have seen. I thought it was offside even from where I was standing. He refereed the game aggressively. A lot of fouls and it could have flowed a bit better.”
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Ibrahimovic appeared to support Pardew’s view that Palace had been hard done to. “Could be, could be,” the United forward said when asked if the ball struck his arm. “I saw Paul free and just tried to get it forward, and I think it did touch the hand a little bit.”
Mourinho initially refused to be drawn on the referee’s performance, pointing out that he had resisted the urge to comment when Marouane Fellaini and Henrikh Mkhitaryan found themselves on the end of contentious challenges against Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur respectively, before moving to defend Rojo, claiming that he is not a malicious player.
“He’s playing really well, phenomenal,” the United manager said. “He’s a clean player, aggressive. His nature is emotional but very clean.
“I didn’t comment on David Luiz’s challenge on Marouane Fellaini, or Danny Rose on Mkhitaryan. I’m not going to comment on this one.”
Ibrahimovic’s late winner took his tally to 14 goals since arriving at Old Trafford as a free agent this summer and Mourinho believes that his performances have confirmed that the 35-year-old has not come to the Premier League simply to see out the final days of his career.
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“I knew the character because, at this age, he’s a character, a personality, and has the passion to play,” Mourinho said. “The quality is there. I knew that he could do what he’s doing here. He has lots of passion.
“I said England is not the best place to be on holidays. When a rich guy with a phenomenal career wants holidays, he doesn’t come to England. It’s the most difficult league in the world, so if you come here you want to show what you can do. That’s what he did. It’s not just about goals. It’s about leadership and motivation. I’m so happy.”
Mourinho said that he can “smell” the top of the table after they followed up Sunday’s 1-0 win over Tottenham with three more points to stay in touch with the Champions League places.
“If we’d had the points we lost at home, or not drawn matches we’d done more than enough to win, we’d be close to the top of the league,” he said. “But we lost those points and, now, we are just closing the gap to the top four. Three matches to play until the end of the year. Let’s see how it ends on 31 December and we can feel then, and smell, what is possible to do in the second half of the season.”