Mourinho mulls United changes at Arsenal

[May 06, 2017]  (Reuters) - Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho will rejig his starting lineup for Sunday's Premier League trip to Arsenal following his team's Europa League semi-final against Celta Vigo.

United beat the Spanish side 1-0 in the first leg on Thursday, but with Wayne Rooney, Juan Mata, Michael Carrick, David de Gea and Chris Smalling on the bench in Spain, Mourinho can still field a strong side against old foe Arsene Wenger.

"I am going to change my team to play against Arsenal, so I think (Wenger) will be really happy with me," Mourinho told reporters.

"We are going to try (to win)... we are not going to Arsenal to say 'beat us', or 'beat us 5 or 6-0'. We are going there to fight for a result."

United are fifth in the table, five points ahead of sixth-placed Arsenal and a point and a place behind Manchester City, and Mourinho said he had all but given up on reaching the Champions League by finishing in the top four.

United can still qualify for Europe's elite club competition by winning the Europa League.

"I think the last match against Swansea was our last chance to fight for top four, so I am going to rest players," he added, referring to United's 1-1 home draw last weekend.

Wenger spoke on Thursday of making peace with Mourinho, a manager he has beaten only once in 15 meetings in the 2015 Community Shield, and with whom he has been involved in several high-profile verbal clashes.

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho Reuters / Miguel Vidal Livepic

"He doesn't need to (make peace). He doesn't need to because there are no problems," Mourinho said.

"In the last match at Old Trafford, we shook hands before, after. I remember that I still met him in the corridor for the press conferences, we shook hands again."

(Reporting by Simon Jennings in Bengaluru, editing by Ed Osmond)

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