Jose Mourinho has refused to criticise his Manchester United players following Sunday's defeat to Arsenal, claiming that he 'could not ask for more'.

The Portuguese heavily rotated his squad for the trip to the Emirates Stadium, making eight changes in all from the 1-0 win over Celta Vigo last time out.

Without a number of key players, United fell to a 2-0 reverse in North London through goals from Granit Xhaka and Danny Welbeck, but Mourinho was keen to take a positive stance post-match.

"I liked individual performances and also collective performances," he told Sky Sports News. "We lost because we didn't score and we had great chances to score before them.

"They had luck with that goal. I can't ask any more from my players who haven't played a minute for several weeks - Phil Jones, Chris Smalling and Juan Mata were all amazing.

"The team was good, organised, we tried to win, we played to win, we defended well and Arsenal weren't better than us in my opinion."

United, who saw their 25-game unbeaten run come to an end at the hands of Arsenal, return to action on Thursday with the second leg of their Europa League semi-final against Celta Vigo.