Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has called upon his players to show character and fight like men to recover from their dreadful 4-0 loss to Chelsea. The Red Devils were humiliated on Sunday at the hands of Jose’s former club, and now face a trip to Manchester City in the EFL Cup on Wednesday where Mourinho wants a response.

Sunday’s result means that United sit 6 points from the top of the table, and have only won one in their last six Premier League games. It was the stuff of nightmares, but Jose believes it is still early doors in the League and wants his players to show determination and fight like ‘men’ to get back to the top.

“I would prefer to play [next] in the Premier League. It’s a bad feeling in the Premier League. With the combination of results, the gap to the top is six points,” Mourinho said in an interview with MUTV.

“We have had a very difficult period of matches. We lost points this week and, even in the match when we played phenomenal against Stoke [a 1-1 draw], we lost points then. Now we need to win matches.”

“I am not saying they are easy ones, but we have Burnley, we have Swansea, West Ham, Sunderland, Middlesbrough – matches that we need to win. The top four, top five, they have to play between themselves like we did this week against Chelsea and Liverpool. They are going to lose points too, so we are in the run, but there is no way to hide. We are really, really sad, but again this is not for kids, this is for men and…we have to be men and work for the next one.”

After Wednesday’s game against City, the fixture list does become a little bit more kind than it has so far this month – but that doesn’t mean things need to change. With 9 games gone, United are lucky to have only 6pts between themselves and leaders Manchester City. There is certainly room for a fight for the top spot, but let’s hope United can dust themselves off and start showing us what they’re made of.