Jose Mourinho insists Chelsea did not deserve to win the FA Cup after seeing Manchester United downed by Eden Hazard's first-half penalty.
In a game of few chances, United dominated possession but gifted Chelsea the lead when Phil Jones wiped out Hazard inside David de Gea's penalty area.
United boosted twice as much possession and three times as many shots but could not stop his former club picking up their eighth FA Cup.
"I congratulated them because they won but I don't think they deserved to win," he told BBC One. "I congratulated them because I am a sportsman. They scored one more goal than us and they got the cup and so I've got to do what my job asks me to do.
"I'm the Manchester United manager and I have to be respectful, not just because they were my previous club but because they were the opponent that won the cup.
"I think we deserved to win, I think we were the best team, but that's football."
Mourinho elaborated on Chelsea's approach in his post-match press conference and insisted he walks away from Wembley happy with United's performance.
He added: "My opinion on my team's performance is that every defeat hurts, but for me personally the ones that hurt less are when you give everything and you go without any regrets.
"I prefer to lose like today than lose like we did at, for example, Newcastle. I leave my players happy with them. For me that's really important. I think our team did a fantastic defensive job without defending. We controlled positions, transitions really well.
"They only played long balls to (Olivier) Giroud to flick. When you play against a team so predictable it's quite easy to adapt to it. I thought we wouldn't concede any goal in this match. But of course Hazard is a very good player and he created a penalty."
