The Spaniard celebrated his strike that gave United the lead over Watford in an unusual way - but there was a trivial reason
Mata tapped home after Anthony Martial's square ball but proceeded to embrace the Frenchman with just one boot on.
But there was a trivial reason for the impromptu celebration.
Mata claims that his boot was already coming off by the time that he steered the ball into the net - and he did not want to interrupt his moment by
Mata tapped home the opening goal (Photo: Getty Images)
He followed it up by taking off his boot (Photo: PA)
He then continued his celebration without a boot (Photo: John Peters)
"My boot was half on and half off by the time I scored," Mata told reporters after the match.
"So when I started to celebrate it just went off and it was good advertising for Adidas."
Mata later added on Twitter: “Yes, I found the boot after the celebration!”
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Antonio Conte's Chelsea are nine points clear of Tottenham and Arsenal in joint second and 11 points ahead of Mourinho's Red Devils.
And the Portuguese coach reckons they won't be caught - but couldn't resist a dig at Conte's "defensive" approach.
"We needed to win," he said after the game. "Sixteen games unbeaten is an amazing record but it would be the perfect record with two or three fewer draws at home. It was a difficult match and a very important win for us.
"We are not a team scoring lots of goals so it is important to keep the clean sheets. I am really happy with performance.
"In the 10-15 minutes before the goal we were playing in a brilliant way. The goal had to come.
"I am so happy with the game between Liverpool and Tottenham later because I know someone will lose points.
"Chelsea are very good defensive team. They defend very well and with lots of players and I think in this situation a very defensive team wins the title with counterattack goals and set pieces goals so I don't think they will let it slip but football is football."