MANCHESTER -- Jose Mourinho hailed Manchester United's first-half performance against Swansea as "perfect" after goals from Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez sealed a 2-0 win at Old Trafford.
United scored twice in the opening 20 minutes to leapfrog Liverpool and go back into second in the Premier League table. It was Lukaku's 100th Premier League goal and Sanchez's second for the club following his January move from Arsenal.
The performance in the first 45 minutes was in stark contrast to United's last outing against Brighton, after which Mourinho accused his players of lacking "class and personality."
But after Saturday's game, Mourinho told a news conference: "The first half was perfect. Maybe one more goal and game over, and then the first half probably one of the best we played here.
"First half, they didn't cross the line, didn't have one shot, we press so high and strong, recovered the ball, had lots of movement and passing, we arrived in many dangerous positions, we should score one more."
Mourinho was less happy with the second-half performance. United needed two smart saves from David De Gea to deny half-time substitute Tammy Abraham and ensure a 16th clean sheet of the season.
"The second half was different," added the United manager. "I think credit to Carlos [Carvalhal] because he improved the team at half-time but we let it go a bit, probably six or seven players played international football midweek, I could feel the intensity go down, we let them have the ball, didn't press so high, our passing was slower, movement the same.
"Players with an amazing first half let it go down a little bit and they felt they had a chance and then David had to make a couple of saves. But in this moment of the season, seven matches to go, we got the points."
As well as scoring, Sanchez also laid on the first for Lukaku. It was a display from the Chilean more in-keeping with his form at Arsenal, but afterwards Mourinho refused to get too excited.
"I don't like to make it individual performance independent of the collective performance," he said. "The team played very well in the first half so Alexis played well, but I think everybody played really well in the first half.
"Second half I think Alexis was one of the guys who paid the price of the international week, playing two matches in three days, Saturday and Tuesday, come here, arrive Wednesday late, almost no time to train so after 60 minutes he was on his way down but important to score."