Jose Mourinho is the master of the odd excuse. Over the years his mind games have got to the point where everything he says is scrutinised beyond all meaning, and after Thursday's Manchester derby he came out with another one.The game itself was a disappointingly drab affair that saw a defensive United side fend of wave after wave of City attacks in order to keep their hopes of recording a top four finish alive.The only real moment of any note from the game came towards the end when United midfielder Marouane Fellaini was given his marching orders for a head-butt on City striker Sergio Aguero.The Belgian international is already something of a pantomime villain at Old Trafford and this won't have helped his cause.However, these games frequently fail to live up to the expectation that comes before kick off, and Fellaini's Dr Jekyll impression provided pundits and fans with a talking point.Not that that will be of any interest to Mourinho, whose side desperately needed the points in order to climb above their neighbours in the table and make a serious charge towards Champions League football next term.After the final whistle, Mourinho was cornered by the Sky Sports cameras and asked for his opinions on the sending off, and as you can imagine, he had some rather amusing comments about the incident.Fellaini was furious with referee Martin Atkinson, and the Special One revealed that the Belgian international was disappointed with the decision to send him off.

"I didn't watch the Fellaini incident on TV but I spoke with Fellaini," Mourinho said as per the Express.

"He thinks it was a red card because he is Fellaini. I spoke to Martin [Atkinson, referee] - he thinks it was a red card.

"I can guess it's a bit of a red card and a bit of a very smart, very experienced Argentinian player."

Later on he added: “I saw Aguero in the tunnel and no broken nose, no broken head, his face is nice as always.”

But overall, it seemed that he took the decision in good humour, despite the impact it will have on his already paper-thin squad.

Over the recent weeks the United squad has been beset by a series of injuries to key players, throwing their Champions League aspirations into serious peril.