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Chris Smalling reveals Jose Mourinhos half-time team talk that inspired Manchester United comeback

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Chris Smalling reveals Jose Mourinho's half-time team talk that inspired Man Utd comeback — The Red Devils pulled off one of the Premier Leagues greatest turnarounds (Picture: Getty)

Chris Smalling says Jose Mourinho told Manchester Uniteds wounded players not to be the clowns at Citys title party as they pulled off an astonishing comeback in the derby.

The hosts knew victory would secure a record-breaking win – the earliest in Premier League history – and got off to a flying start, with Vincent Kompany and Ilkay Gundogan both netting in the first half.

City appeared to be cruising to the title, but United were a different team in the second half and turned the match on its head within minutes of the restart.

Paul Pogba was the catalyst, scoring twice in quick succession, and then Smalling grabbed the winner with a powerful header.

Afterwards, the centre-back revealed that Mourinho had to say very little to gee the players up who knew their first-half performance was not good enough, though the Special One still had a few words for his players.

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Smalling told Sky Sports: The manager didnt have to say much at half time as we knew ourselves as players it was a poor performance.

He said that we didnt want to be the clowns standing there watching them get their title.

City have been fantastic here all season, but we stepped up and won the game.

Mourinho also spoke about his half-time words, saying: I gave them examples of many matches, teams losing 2-0 can recover.

On Uniteds stunning turnaround, Smalling continued: At half time we were feeling sorry for ourselves, we wanted to go out there and play with prided and thought we full deserved it in the end.

The first half was terrible, we dropped off didnt play our game, and could have been out of sight.