Henrikh Mkhitaryan will miss just two Manchester United games after injury vs Tottenham, reveals Jose Mourinho

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Jose Mourinho claimed Sunday's match winner Henrikh Mkhitaryan should be back for Manchester United's festive rush after leaving Old Trafford on a stretcher.

Mkhitaryan sustained an ankle injury after Danny Rose cynically hacked him down during the hugely important victory against Tottenham Hotspur.

The Armenian had earlier scored the decisive goal to earn a first home Premier League win since September and cut the gap with the top four to six points.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan had to be stretchered off after scoring the winner for Manchester United

Mkhitaryan was injured after a firm challenge from Tottenham defender Danny Rose (centre)

Mourinho moved to calm concerns surrounding the severity of Mkhitaryan's problem, although the £26.3million summer signing is likely to miss the next two matches.

'It looks like it is nothing dangerous or needing surgery so hopefully we will have him back on Boxing Day,' Mourinho said.

'It depends always of the player - anatomy, physiology, mentality - but hopefully it is not a big thing.'

The Armenian winger looked in some discomfort as Manchester United physios treated him

Mkhitaryan is set to miss trips to Crystal Palace and West Brom in the coming days but Mourinho was buoyant after finally grinding a result out at home.

'To be honest, after so many matches playing well but not winning, we need more the points than the performance,' he added.

'But I knew against a team like Tottenham it is difficult to get the result without playing well, so we played well. Very well. Tottenham, for me, is a very complete team.'

Mkhitaryan scored the game's only goal in a Man of the Match performance at Old Trafford

The Portuguese also accepted that thousands of home supporters had their reasons for jeering late substitute Marouane Fellaini.

Boos rained down on the Belgian as he was introduced in stoppage-time after a kamikaze cameo away at Everton last weekend.

Mourinho said: 'I accept it because you have to accept everything, and especially fans that are giving so much to us without getting so much from us.

'They are so supportive from us, they can also be big critics, and I think the points was that they have in their mind the mistake that Marouane did at Everton.

'He is a player that I like, he is a person I like and the person is even more important than the player. He will always have my protection and he will have always my trust.'

Mauricio Pochettino saw Spurs slip 10 points behind leaders Chelsea after their second defeat of the season but maintained this was just a blip.

Marouane Fellaini was subjected to jeers from the home crowd as he came on from the bench

Pochettino also refused to blame Harry Kane for over-playing on the halfway line for Mkhitaryan's eventual winning goal and implored his side to keep taking risks.

'I am not too concerned,' Pochettino said. 'The Premier League is tough and Chelsea had a very bad start. They changed the system and look where they are now. There is time to recover the gap.

'That is how we want to play. That situation happens in football and we need to be clever enough to react.

'Our offensive players can make a mistake. They need to take a risk. We have a lack of reaction in that situation when we lost the ball and we allow them to score.'

Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino refused to lay blame on Harry Kane for Mkhitaryan's goal