Manchester United news: Jose Mourinho destined to fail in attempts to delay Chelsea return over fixture pile-up

United will play in the Europa League three days before the likely date for Mourinho's Stamford Bridge return

Jose Mourinho is unhappy with the three days' recovery Manchester United will receive before they travel to Chelsea (Getty)

Jose Mourinho is attempting to delay his return to Stamford Bridge after growing increasingly alarmed at the lack of time his Manchester United squad will have to recover from their Europa League commitments before facing Chelsea in the Premier League.

Mourinho is due to return to Chelsea on the weekend of 21-23 October, with Sunday 23 the most likely given the match would be targeted for live television broadcasting and, with United in European action on Thursday, would be moved to the Sunday to give United time to recover.

However, The Times claims that Mourinho is unhappy with the 72 hours rest and recovery time that his players would be afforded between the Europa League tie and the trip back to London, and he has urged United to petition the Premier League to move the encounter in what he has identified as his most important match of his United tenure to that date.

The Portuguese is also believed to have asked United to contact Chelsea to raise the concern over the difference in recovery time. Given Chelsea failed to qualify for Champions League football this season, they will have more than a week to fully prepare for the visit of Mourinho, just 10 months after he was unceremoniously sacked by club owner Roman Abramovich.

But while Mourinho hopes to delay the controversial return to his former stomping ground, United are said to be resigned to playing the fixture on 23 October regardless of how far they have to travel in their Europa League tie, should it prove to be played away from Old Trafford.

Sky and BT Sport are yet to announce fixture moves for October, but the prospect of playing the Chelsea match on Monday 24 October is not possible given that both sides will be in League Cup action on the following Tuesday or Wednesday.

That means any postponement would have to be the result of a mutual agreement between the two clubs, something that will not happen due to Chelsea’s unwillingness to consider the issue as they believe it is a problem for the Premier League to resolve.