Manchester United vs Tottenham: Jose Mourinho offers sympathy to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer after 6-1 humiliation

Jose Mourinho expressed sympathy for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer after Manchester United suffered a humiliating 6-1 home defeat at the hands of Tottenham Hotspur.

Tottenham had to come from behind after Bruno Fernandes' early penalty but tore Solskjaer's side to pieces, particularly once Anthony Martial was shown a straight red card for an altercation with Erik Lamela.

Harry Kane and Heung-Min Son each scored twice, while goals from Tanguy Ndombele and Serge Aurier completed the rout in United's joint-heaviest Premier League defeat.

"I have sympathy for Ole because of the result," Mourinho, who was sacked by United in December 2018, said. "I don't remember that I lost by six but I lost by five, I lost by four. I know how we hurt.

"I know it's very very important that the winning manager behaves in a way where he shows sympathy. Of course I want to win, and of course I want to win by seven, not by six. Don't get me wrong.

"But it's sympathy in our behaviour. Today was him, tomorrow is me. Of course I feel sympathy for him. I can imagine that tonight he's not going to sleep very very well. But this is the hard life of us."

Mourinho said that to win so convincingly at Old Trafford was an "honour".

"The pleasure is not the 6-1, the pleasure is the performance and three points which we really need after losing points at home against Newcastle," he added.

"The target, objective is every match we go to win. I told the players in the last couple of days 1000 times a good result at Old Trafford is to win.

"Of course if you draw it's not a bad result but that's the kind of mentality we must get. It was a great performance, a great result. We have seven points, so our position in the table is so-so."