Following Manchester United’s 1-0 win over rivals Manchester City in the League Cup, Jose Mourinho has said the reaction of the fans following the dreadful result against Chelsea at the weekend has meant he couldn’t be prouder to be our manager.

It is an important result because this is a knockout competition: if you lose you are out and if you win you are in. It is especially important because it was a way to create a better feeling for the absolutely wonderful fans that I have never seen before in my life. After the defeat at Chelsea, to have this support is incredible. The love that these people have for the club is bigger than the result, it is bigger than the success and the trophies. It is real love and it is real passion. I am very happy for them, I don’t care about myself. I am not happy because it is important for me, I am happy for the fans. I am happy for the players because they have absolutely everything. The performance was good, it was not phenomenal, but it was good. What was phenomenal was the spirit, the effort and the solidarity. This is the minimum that we can give to the fans.

It is real passion that doesn’t depend on results or the moments. It is easy to be a Man United fan when you win the Treble, when you win five titles in seven years. But it is not so easy when you lose 4-0 and this is incredible. The only thing I can say is that I couldn’t be prouder than I am to be Man United manager. Like I wrote in my [programme] notes, after such a bad result the only way I know is to fight. We are going to fight and the players did that for the fans. The fans did that for the fans too because they also played this game. This was not the Champions League final. It is just the League Cup last 16, but it was against City and it was after a big defeat so it was very important for us.