Manchester United deserve to be challenging Chelsea for the title, says Sir Alex Ferguson

Sir Alex Ferguson has hailed the achievements of his Manchester United successor Jose Mourinho, insisting the Red Devils deserve to be challenging Chelsea for the title.

The Manchester giants have spent most of this season in sixth place, only rising to fifth thanks to Arsenal’s precipitous decline in recent weeks, and find themselves 17 points off Antonio Conte’s league leaders.

United have lost as many Premier League games as Chelsea this season – three – but Mourinho’s men have thrown away points in home draws against the likes of Bournemouth, Hull and Burnley.

On more than one of those occasions outstanding performances by visiting goalkeepers have denied Zlatan Ibrahimovic and company and their former boss, who won 13 top flight titles and two Champions Leagues at Old Trafford, believes Mourinho is entitled to feel hard done by.

Ferguson told SiriusXM: “I get on well with Jose and I think he’s doing a really good job.

“He’s been a bit unlucky because they’ve been absolutely brilliant in most of their home games and drawn [seven of] them. If they had got the wins they deserved they would be challenging for the league, no doubt about that.

“In the Premier League at the moment, there is a real fight for the positions behind Chelsea – Tottenham, Arsenal, Liverpool, ourselves. It’s not going to be easy to get into the top four.”

United currently sit four points off fourth-placed Liverpool with two games in hand and face West Brom at Old Trafford on Saturday.