Paul Pogba to miss derby after Man Utd decide against appealing red card

Paul Pogba will miss Sunday’s Manchester derby after Manchester United decided not to appeal the France midfielder’s red card against Arsenal in a bitter blow to Jose Mourinho’s preparations for the biggest game of the season.

Pogba was sent off in the second half of United’s 3-1 win on Saturday after catching Arsenal defender Hector Bellerin with his studs.

Mourinho was unhappy that Pogba was dismissed when Arsenal’s Laurent Koscielny escaped a red card for bringing down Romelu Lukaku late in the game but United opted to accept the punishment and the manager must now plan for the visit of runaway league leaders Manchester City to Old Trafford without his best player.

The only good news for United was that Pogba – who will also miss the Premier League games against Bournemouth and West Bromwich Albion next week - faces no further action for sarcastically applauding referee Andre Marriner’s decision to send him off.

Mourinho confirmed Pogba would face CSKA Moscow in United’s final Champions League stage match on Tuesday evening, when they must avoid a seven goal defeat to qualify for the Round of 16, but his talisman’s absence on Sunday has presented him with a huge headache.

The Portuguese admitted last month that Pogba was “irreplaceable” and that United were a much better and more potent team with him in it.

United have scored 12 goals in the five games since Pogba returned from a near 10-week lay-off with a torn hamstring, whereas they had only managed seven in their previous seven fixtures without the Frenchman and, at times, looked short of imagination and ideas going forward.

Mourinho said United lost physicality, running power, the ability to press high and vision without Pogba bestriding the midfield and his problems are compounded by Marouane Fellaini’s battles with a knee injury, with the Belgium midfielder facing a race to the fit for City.

The same applies to Eric Bailly, Phil Jones and Michael Carrick, who will also miss the CSKA game, along with Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who is suffering from fatigue after his return return from a ruptured cruciate and is not certain to be in the best of conditions for Sunday.  Sergio Romero will start in goal with David De Gea rested after his extraordinary exploits against Arsenal and left back Luke Shaw is in the squad.

“You can clearly see Manchester United this season before Paul’s injury and after Paul’s injury,” Mourinho said last month. “There are qualities in our football that influence our approach in matches, with Pogba and without Pogba, it’s as simple as that.”

Mourinho would not be drawn on Monday  on the significance of being without Pogba against City. “He is not suspended for the Champions League, he plays,” Mourinho said. “He’s happy to play. It’s the next match, the match that matters.

“Of course he’s a bit tired because it was a huge match last weekend and [there are] just two days to recover for CSKA.

“He’s very happy to play and try to keep his momentum. Since he was back from injury he’s been phenomenal.”

Mourinho was in no mood for conversation on Monday and even less willing to discuss the derby, which he has told his United players to forget about in order to focus fully on CSKA and ensure they qualify for the Champions League knockout stage as group winners.

United will equal a club record 40 games unbeaten at Old Trafford if they avoid defeat against CSKA.

“It’s easy,” the United manager said when asked if how difficult it was to ensure his players’ concentration does not wander ahead of the derby. “We are used to it. We don’t think about the next, next game, just about [CSKA].”

Group A permutations

Ibrahimovic will not feature but Mourinho expects the Swedish striker to be back for the derby. “Zlatan is not injured,” he said. “Zlatan needs some time of very hard work on the muscular area that supports the knee that had the problem.

“When the time for that hard work comes the fatigue comes. To work really hard for certain period of time, he cannot play these days. He will be out again for tomorrow, but I believe he will be back to normal work after CSKA.”