Patrice Evra and Erik ten Hag argue over Man Utd ‘excuses’ after Chelsea victory

Patrice Evra had a heated debate with Erik ten Hag after Manchester United's victory over Chelsea.

United legend Evra criticised Ten Hag for making "excuses" for the team's recent poor performances, which have left them in fourth spot in their Champions League group and on the brink of being dumped out of Europe. But the Dutchman insisted he wasn't doing so during a fiery live debate Amazon Prime Video Sport.

After their disappointing defeat to Newcastle, the Red Devils bounced back with a 2-1 win against Chelsea at Old Trafford. This leaves Ten Hag's squad in sixth place, just three points behind reigning champions Manchester City, who hold the last Champions League spot.

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Ten Hag suggested his team's European commitments were to blame for their performance at St James' Park. However, Evra strongly disagreed, telling him on Amazon Prime Video Sport: "I know you're protecting your players but we really feel again Newcastle – Newcastle are also playing in the Champions League against PSG."

The Frenchman continued: "So I think saying they were a little bit tired is not an excuse and tonight and I'm sorry and I know you won't comment about it but the players that were on the pitch all of them were like dying for the badge. They were playing as a team."

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"I think the start today was a team. It wasn't one player even McTominay wins man-of-the-match. But I just saw the starting XI, they were the players and were like determined to win and forgive what happened against Newcastle."

"Ten Hag responded to the former fullback's claims by saying he was not looking for an excuse, but it was only natural to see a drop-off from his side given the packed fixture list that they have faced. He replied: "I can give always reasons but they are never excuses so it doesn't matter. You are talking about performance every time again from Newcastle.

"We play in that week, three games, two very good games. But then I know we played on Saturday, Newcastle on Sunday. We played on Wednesday, they played on Tuesday. We came back from Istanbul, we have to go away."

"There are always reasons why but that's still not an excuse to play like we did in Newcastle, definitely not. We can't take that excuse. We have to perform every time for our fans, every time we have to give our best because good is not good enough, you have to do better."

Man United will be aiming to make it back-to-back victories this weekend with another home game. They welcome Bournemouth to Old Trafford on Saturday afternoon.

The schedule then cranks up once more for the Red Devils with upcoming games against Liverpool, West Ham and Aston Villa in the Premier League. They also have their decisive Champions League clash against Bayern Munich to navigate.

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