First and foremost, Paolo is so happy that Jermain was rewarded with a goal against the Red Devils at the weekend after working so diligently in the last few weeks.
"I am very happy for Jermain Defoe; he is a centre forward who has not had many chances to score because we weren't creating.
"But he scored with that good finish at the end of the game and that gave him an extra lift - as well as the team - and we are very pleased for him."
But he magnanimously refuses to use the stirring performance as a reason to gloat over Julian Dicks' recent comments which he realises were somewhat exaggerated.
"It is not a personal battle with me and him. Now it is finished and I think now he has realised he was wrong, especially as he was taken advantage of," says Paolo.
"You have to be careful, and people like me are intelligent. I know what I did in my life as I am not one of those players who doesn't remember.
"But it is not a personal battle and we have to think about West Ham, not other people talking about me, and especially not sports writers.
"We only have to be focused on training and getting out of this position."
His disdain is indeed more directed at the way statistics have been presented to suggest he has missed certain away games and explains: "It is important that we take others' opinions - but they have to say the truth.
"In Italy we say liars have short legs because lies don't last long."
Of the game overall, he says: "I was happy though for it to be a perfect day we wanted to win, of course.
"At the end, once again, I think we showed character and if we play like that we can get a few good results in a row.
"We can get out of our position and once again we showed we are a good team so once again I feel we will get some good results."
And testing himself against the best?
"I am happy to play for West Ham in every game, not only against Manchester United, one of the best squads in the world.
"But we challenged them and showed once again we have character and I hope from now we can move on up."
The obvious point is whether he felt after the game that he could, had fate conspired differently, have been playing at Upton Park in a red shirt.
But he says: "I don't want to answer that question because I play for West Ham and I am happy - it is clear that if I have to leave at the end of the season it will not be my fault.
"I am here ready to listen to what they propose to me and if I have to go at the end of the season it will not be my choice."