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Jose Mourinho feels Henrikh Mkhitaryan is evolving into the player he wanted when the Manchester United manager sanctioned the £26million signing in the summer.
Mkhitaryan put in a man of the match performance against West Ham on Wednesday night as United progressed into the EFL Cup semi-finals with a 4-1 win.
Mourinho was serving a touchline ban for the tie but spoke afterwards about Mkhitaryan, who assisted two goals with one a backheel for Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
‘I’m so happy because today was against a Premier League team with Premier League qualities with Premier League characteristics,’ Mourinho told Sky Sports.
‘That showed clearly his evolution. Against Feyenoord we could think, “OK it is a different profile of football” but today was against a proper and typical Premier League team and Micky could perform this way. So I’m really happy.
‘We know the reason why we bought him and we were waiting for his adaptation and it looks like it’s coming.’
Ibrahimovic and Anthony Martial scored two apiece on Wednesday to secure the 4-1 win against West Ham and set up a two-legged semi-final with Hull City.
Mkhitaryan was asked how he felt about his performance afterwards and answered: ‘I’m more pleased we won.
‘It was a very important game because now we are in the semi-finals. I think we did a good job and we’ve got to keep going.’
On whether it would be a dream to get to a Wembley final, he added: ‘Maybe it is a dream but that is not the main goal.
‘We have to be focussed for the next game. Then we will see what happens.’
United play Everton in the Premier League next but will have to make do without Wayne Rooney, who is suspended after picking up his fifth booking of the season.
