A bad week for Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney has worsened with Jose Mourinho dropping him for Saturday's Premier League clash with Arsenal. Rooney has been criticised by sections of British media after being photographed apparently drunk while on England duty last weekend. Having started the win over Scotland, the England skipper subsequently missed the draw with Spain - citing a knee injury - and that may have factored in Mourinho's thinking in replacing the suspended Zlatan Ibrahimovic with Marcus Rashford in United's attack, while Anthony Martial has come in for the skipper. Nevertheless, the Portuguese was scathing of the Football Association's treatment of Rooney - who started United's last league game at Swansea City - in the build-up to Saturday's fixture. "The only thing I say is the player goes to the national team, he belongs to the national team," Mourinho said.
"I learned since I was a kid, if someone lends me something I have to take care of it even better than if it was mine."Jose Mourinho has claimed Anthony Martial's efforts in training are behind the decision to drop a fully fit Wayne Rooney for Manchester United's Premier League match against Arsenal. Rooney made the headlines for the wrong reasons after appearing to be drunk in photographs taken at a wedding held at the England team's hotel last weekend. Captain for his club and country, the experienced striker was left out of the 2-2 friendly draw with Spain at Wembley on Tuesday and left the national team camp to return to United, apparently to seek treatment on a knee injury, according to England's interim coach Gareth Southgate.Mourinho criticised the Football Association for allowing Rooney's transgression to take place. And, while the Portuguese said the 31-year-old has recovered from his minor fitness issue, Martial was preferred to Rooney in the starting XI for the clash with the Gunners at Old Trafford. "I decided to leave Wayne on the bench," he told Sky Sports. "Everything is a process. I have to analyse everything all together. But I prefer to go with the fact the way Martial trained for the last two weeks, because he was not selected for the French national team, he showed a great desire to improve his levels. Which we believe he did, so we go with Martial. "[Rooney's] fitness is fine. He came back with a little thing. After a couple of days of treatment he was fine."
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