Jose Mourinho 'will not hide' from Manchester City's 16-point lead over Manchester United

A morose and monosyllabic Mourinho did not want to speak about City's achievements at length

Jose Mourinho was in a truculent mood at his press conference on Friday (Getty)

Jose Mourinho has insisted that he will not “hide” from the 16-point gap between his Manchester United side and Manchester City ahead of this weekend’s derby.

The United manager was reluctant to speak much about the Premier League leaders, who will be crowned champions if they beat Mourinho’s side at the Etihad in Saturday’s evening kick-off.

A morose and sometimes monosyllabic Mourinho refused to entertain questions on City’s performances this season and whether the gap between United and their rivals was widening, instead concentrating on the game at hand.

“My motivation is to finish second. I still have the motivation of finishing top four, mathematically is not done, it’s a good distance but not done mathematically so that's the first objective but after that I don't hide,” he said.

“In practical terms, to finish second third or fourth is exactly the same, because you don't win the title but qualify for the Champions League group phase.

“But I prefer to finish third and fourth and second and third, and because we have been second for many many months, it is our objective to fight for that and for that we need points. My objective for tomorrow is try to have points to finish second.”

When asked whether the January signing of Alexis Sanchez was proof that United could at least rival City in the transfer market, he gave a truculent response.

“Are we? That's your opinion. It's your opinion,” he said. “Did they spend money in January? Did they? Do you know that? Can you confirm that?

“I don't know, I have no idea if they were interested [in Sanchez] or not, I've no idea.”

City withdrew their interest in Sanchez after feeling as though the prospective deal had become too expensive, but later broke their club transfer record to complete the £57m signing of Aymeric Laporte.