MANCHESTER: Jose Mourinho said Manchester United can still secure a top-four finish in the Premier League, saying an unkind fixture list is partly to blame for their early season struggles. United are languishing in eighth place in the table, five points from a Champions League qualification position, as they prepare to visit Bournemouth today. But the manager believes his team have been hindered by a series of difficult back-to-back away fixtures, citing the fact they must travel to Manchester City in the Premier League on Nov. 11, four days after a Champions League trip to Juventus, and that they visit Liverpool in December after a European away game against Valencia. Mourinho has refused to rule out a challenge for the title but says the first priority must be to climb into the top four. “When you are outside the top four I don’t think you should speak about the title,” he said. “When you are in the top four, which I believe we are going to be, you can look up, see the distance, look to the fixtures, to the calendar.” “I always say that in the end of the season you play 19 matches at home and away and it doesn’t matter when but the reality is that the way the fixtures are coming, sometimes they have an influence in the moment. “We had a double fixture away in September (at Burnley and Watford). Now we have a double away league fixture at Bournemouth and Manchester City.”