Brighton made things hard for Manchester United as the Reds managed to score through a deflected effort by Ashley Young, which helped the hosts secure a hard-fought 1-0 win at Old Trafford on Saturday.

The Reds were frustrated for over an hour of the game, as the visitors thwarted every attempt of Manchester United, but Young’s 25-yard effort hit Lewis Dunk and the ball made its way into the far corner to secure a crucial three points for the Reds.

Reacting to his side’s win, Manchester United coach Jose Mourinho said that Brighton were “probably” the toughest opponents his team have faced at home this season so far.

“I think they played really well. We didn’t play well. The good thing for me was the intensity got higher in the second half in search of the goal and then, after the goal, we couldn’t kill the game and, in the last 10-15 minutes, I saw a team with everyone trying to play for the clean sheet and to give everything. But I have to praise a team and a manager that, a few months ago, were playing in the Championship and, today, they come to Old Trafford and they were the team until now who caused us the most problems,” said Mourinho in the press conference, according to www.manutd.com.

Talking about his team composition, the coach said, “Sometimes you play with too many attacking players and you lose control of the game. We had a few problems defensively because [Nemanja] Matic and [Paul] Pogba were a bit isolated in the centre of the park and, if you compensate that with more creation, that’s a good risk. And, against Newcastle, it was good because we were not solid defensively but we were really strong in creation. Today, our creation was poor.”

Praising his team, Mourinhi said that the Reds didn’t deserve bad words. “We had amazing chances a couple of days ago and we couldn’t score, today we did it. Congratulations to them for their performance, congratulations to my boys. My boys, they didn’t play well but they gave everything. The boys, they don’t deserve bad words from me.”

With inputs from agencies and official website of Manchester United