Man Utd news: Timing of Mourinho's spat with Conte reveals his genius - Matt Upson

Jose Mourinho became involved in a war of words with Chelsea manager Antonio Conte only because "his team is flying" according to a BBC pundit.

The Manchester United boss has been busy with a back-and-forth spat in the past week with the Italian manager, originally taking aim at Conte for his side’s results on injury.

Speaking on BBC's Football Focus, Matt Upson said these thinly-veiled digs were carefully orchestrated by Mourinho, who he described as the "master manipulator" in football.

Upson said: "He does his interviews when they are at their best. 

"He interviews like that and takes this attitude in these games only when his team is flying."

Football Focus host Dan Walker agreed, adding: "I have this picture of him watching everyone reacting to his latest words, and him just thinking, 'Yes I’ve got them again'."

Conte had claimed the Manchester United boss was obsessed with Chelsea in response to the Portuguese boss' remarks.

Last night, Mourinho reignited the row with Conte admitting he "doesn’t speak" to the Italian.

Mourinho said: "I don’t know why he speaks to me but that is no problem or maybe it is not his fault and it is the journalists fault when they pass to him the wrong message.

"There are managers all over the world that by philosophy they prefer to speak about injuries, they prefer to try to find the excuse of a hypothetical failure based on injuries.

"Since last season we had big injuries and last season you know that without Lukaku, Zlatan was even more important for us and everyone knows what Pogba means for us.

"But, our philosophy is not to moan, to cry. I moan about other things, I cry about fixtures, having no time to rest in between matches.

"I moan that I don’t understand that we play Saturday after Wednesday when we should play Sunday. I moan about this all the time but not about injuries."