JOSE MOURINHO has not quite got off to the dream start he would have hoped for when he took over the reins at Manchester United this summer.
The former Chelsea and Real Madrid boss, 53, enjoyed a superb August, but since then things have somewhat fizzled out for the Special One.

After kicking off his competitive career at the Old Trafford club with a 2-1 win over Leicester to win the Community Shield, United then won three straight Premier League games.
Yet with things looking up in the Mourinho-Paul Pogba-Zlatan Ibrahimovic era, suddenly the slump kicked in.
Three consecutive defeats at the hands of Manchester City - in the fiercely competitive Manchester derby - Feyenoord in the Europa League and then Watford 3-1 in the Prem was the welcome back to the top flight Mr Mourinho would have been hoping to avoid.

Since then it's been a mixed bag; a win over Northampton in the League cup and thumping 4-1 win over last year's champions Leicester was followed by a scrappy 1-0 home win over minnows Zorya Luhansk in Europe.
They then stumbled to a poor draw against then-bottom of the table Stoke thanks to a late Joe Allen goal.
In fact, it's been such a poor start to life in Manchester for Jose, that it is his fourth worst ever, at any club after seven league games - in his 13th season in one of Europe's 'Big Five' leagues.

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United have picked up just 13 points from their seven Premier League games, having earned nine from their opening three.
On only three occasions has Mourinho seen a lower tally at the same stage...
Twice he has picked up 11 points - once with Real Madrid in 2012-13 and another with Chelsea in 2007-08.


Although, in the latter instance - at the Blues - Mourinho was sacked after just six games; had he had that seventh game, he may overtaken his United tally of 13...
Yet the worst ever showing after seven games was last season at Chelsea, when the Blues' horror start to the season saw them languishing near the drop zone with just eight points from seven games.
With so much optimism surrounding Man United this season, with their big-money buys, marquee manager and shrewd additions, such as the freebie Zlatan, it's fair to say it has been something of a let-down.

It's never easy to work with a new club and thrive straight away, but if anything the results and the performances to go with them have slowly declined over the past month or so.
Nothing to worry about just yet United fans, but it's not quite been the Mourinho-effect we all expected.
After all, 13 points from seven games with the most expensive football squad ever assembled just won't cut it...

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