Jose Mourinho has finally run out of patience with Alexis Sanchez after the Chilean's wretched start to the season.

Sanchez - a high profile January signing from Arsenal - felt the brunt of Mourinho’s anger after last week’s 1-1 draw with Wolves.

While the Manchester United manager was critical of his entire team’s attitude, he was particularly incensed by the 29-year-old forward for his overall performance levels since the start of the season.

Paul Pogba and Juan Mata were also targets of Mourinho’s criticism as the Portuguese attempted to assert his authority at Old Trafford in the face of a growing crisis.

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While Pogba was stripped of the vice-captaincy it’s notable he retained his place in the starting line-up for Saturday’s 3-1 defeat to West Ham - and Mata was named on the bench.

But Mourinho’s frustration over Sanchez was underlined by the decision to force him to travel to London, despite being dropped from United’s 18-man match day squad.

The pair have so far enjoyed a strong relationship after eight months working together.

Mourinho has been fiercely loyal to Sanchez - forcing Marcus Rashford to play out of position to accommodate the former Barcelona star, and marginalising Anthony Martial.

But he was so intent on omitting Sanchez from his plans on Saturday that he dramatically altered his system to fit Martial into a front two.

That meant playing with a back three, which included midfielder Scott McTominay operating as a makeshift defender.

Explaining that decision, Mourinho said: “I want to play Martial. Something that you are asking for a long, long, long time to play Martial. I left Alexis out, and I think that Martial is not a player very, very, very focused on his defensive duties.

“And to play him as a second striker and trying just to cover the area of (Declan) Rice would be much easier for him.”

Mourinho was involved in a tense training ground exchange with Pogba in front of watching TV cameras on Wednesday - but admitted the incident was nothing like as dramatic as events that go on behind closed doors on a regular basis.

And his rebuke of Sanchez was a prime example of that.

He said on Friday: “When you say (it’s) disruptive or you got on camera me speaking with Paul I am happy that you don’t come here more times because you would get much more than that.

“I can promise you, much more than that. Much louder much more aggressive. Words with a completely different dimension, you would get a lot.

“So I’m really happy that the rules are 15 minutes (a month).”