Mourinho defiant despite United's defeat to Chelsea

Alvaro Morata's 55th-minute goal at Stamford Bridge was enough to give reigning champions Chelsea victory and leave United eight points behind in-form leaders Manchester City.

"We are second - not fifth, sixth or seventh or eight," Mourinho told Sky Sports after his third straight loss at Stamford Bridge since he became United manager.

"We have several teams in a more difficult position than we have. Eight points is eight points.

"We went through a difficult phase with important matches against Tottenham, Liverpool and Chelsea without important players."

The Portuguese manager added: "The game was controlled by us and the game was controlled by them. We had chances and they had chances and with the first goal they were able to bring more people to defend.

"We tried to change the direction of our game, we created chances to equalise but we couldn't.

"We had chances. If I remember (Romelu) Lukaku shot in the first half and in the last part of the game with the (Marcus) Rashford shot...We had lots of chances to score goals," Mourinho said.

Victory saw Chelsea move to within nine points of top spot and eased the pressure on the London club's Italian manager Antonio Conte following a 3-0 loss away to Roma in the Champions League earlier this week.

"It's an important victory," said Conte. "When you play against Manchester United it's always a massive game. This type of win is important for our confidence. We showed great desire and passion to win this kind of game