Manchester United’s poor start to the season has brought pressure on manager Jose Mourinho and stirred memories of his final campaign at Chelsea.
United sit 10th in the Premier League, already at least five points behind the rest of the ‘big six’, and have not won in their last four games.
That includes Tuesday night’s goalless draw with Valencia in the Champions League, a Carabao Cup exit to Championship Derby and just one point from league games against Wolves and West Ham.
Following a trophyless 2017-18 season, United have just 10 points from their seven league games so far and Mourinho has gone four home games without a win in all competitions for the first time in his managerial career.
Flash back to 2015 and Chelsea went into the season on the back of a Premier League and League Cup double – but their hopes of successfully defending either trophy were in tatters before the season’s halfway point.
Stoke dumped them out of the League Cup on penalties but it was in the league where the real trouble lay as they immediately fell off the pace and never recovered.
They won only one of their first five games to slump to an unthinkable 17th in the table and had an even worse record than this season’s United team by the equivalent point in the season, with just two wins and eight points from seven games.
United have three wins, lifting their tally into double figures, and have not slipped to the same depths as that Blues side.
Comparing the two teams’ points tally and league position game by game, the only time United fall behind is after three games – they followed up an opening win over Leicester with losses to Brighton and Tottenham to slide to 13th, a point and three places worse than Mourinho’s Chelsea at the same stage.
Chelsea’s woes continued and they limped to 15 points from 16 games, just one point and two places above the relegation zone, before Mourinho was sacked in December.
They had managed just one win, against Norwich, and two goals in their last five league games and even beating his former club Porto to top Champions League Group G could not save Mourinho.
Disputes with striker Diego Costa and club doctor Eva Carneiro also played their part, echoed in the reportedly uneasy relationship between Mourinho and Paul Pogba this season.
United are not yet in the same kind of on-field trouble but the warning signs are there for Mourinho, who will know rapid improvement is required to stave off the questions over his long-term future.
