Jose Mourinho admits Brighton 'deserved more' after scrappy Manchester United win

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho said Brighton provided his team with the "most problems" of any visiting team at Old Trafford so far this season after the Red Devils eked out a 1-0 win over the newly-promoted side on 25 November.

The hosts were subpar throughout as they struggled to break down a resilient Brighton defence, but a second-half strike from Ashley Young took a fortuitous deflection off Lewis Dunk and nestled in the top right corner of goal to give Mourinho's side all three points.

The victory extended United's perfect record at OId Trafford this season and cut the gap to league leaders Manchester City to five points.

Mourinho praised Brighton's performance and admitted that his team did not show enough quality in the attacking third.

"I want to be honest and give them what they deserve, for me, probably they deserve more than the result they got," the Portuguese coach told MUTV.

"They played really well, they had a good defensive organisation and then, when they had the ball, they were dangerous.

"Honestly, I think Brighton were very, very good. They gave us probably the hardest match we've had this season. I think we had more spirit and heart than quality."

Mourinho went on to say that he may have played with too many attacking players against Brighton, with Romelu Lukaku and Marcus Rashford starved of service in the final third.

But the Portuguese said he would not be too critical of his players after United lost their midweek Champions League game at Basel 1-0 despite dominating the game.

"In the Champions League, we played some of the best football away from home in the first half and could have been 6-0 but it was 0-0," he said.

"I am not happy with that but today we scored one and one goal was enough for the three points because in the end we speak about what we want but the points is the most important."