Jose Mourinho has all but written off Manchester United’s hopes of finishing in the top-four of the Premier League and admits he may play a weakened team against Arsenal at the Emirates on Sunday.

Mourinho has prioritised United’s Europa League semi-final ties against Celta Vigo as their best route back into the Champions League next season after seeing his team draw successive games with Manchester City and Swansea.

Although United are only a point behind fourth-placed City, two of their last three league fixtures are away to Arsenal and Tottenham, and he is ready to make changes against the Gunners to protect United’s hopes of winning the Europa League.

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has written off his side's top-four hopes

Red Devils are put through their paces ahead of the Europa League semi against Celta Vigo

‘In relation to the Premier League, I think it’s too late because in the past month of April we played nine matches, seven of them in the Premier and we had too many problems, too many players absent,’ he said.

‘Because of that we had players having to play 750-800 minutes of football and we paid the price. We played against fresh teams and we were in accumulation.

‘In this moment the perspective is different because the Europa League becomes even more important for us.

‘Of course, it depends on the result and the way we analyse the situation tomorrow after the match, but if we have to rest players next weekend we are going to do that.’

Mourinho revealed he may need to rest players for the Premier League trip to rivals Arsenal

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Celta, on the other hand, are 11th in La Liga and have been resting players for a while to give themselves a better chance in Europe.

Mourinho added: ‘I don’t think they are going to come to enjoy the match. If that was the case they wouldn’t have played with the second team against Bilbao and lost 3-0 (at the weekend). They have lost two matches in La Liga playing with their second teams so it’s very clear they have come to win.’

Asked about his comments at the weekend when he said that United would field some youth team players in their last league game against Crystal Palace if they had the Europa League final in Stockholm three days later, Mourinho said: We’re talking hypothetically here and I especially had the Europa League in mind when I said it, but it’s way too early.

‘We have a 50 per cent chance of getting through. If players play in the hypothetical final, they would not be selected to play on the Sunday before.’