Manchester United, treading water in the league with a goal difference of minus two after just 15 games. It seems unthinkable.
That's, however, areality that applies both to November 1986 and December 2018 but at least in '86 it was a United side who had appointed anew manager and were just two games into what would be the greatest career in English football history.
In 2018, meanwhile, it always feels like were two games away from the current United bo s becoming the third man to inadequately succeed Sir Alex Rod Langway Jersey Ferguson.
Hard as it is to recall, the last time Manchester United led in a Premier League game was for a few minutes of injury time away at Bournemouth more than a month ago. The much-vaunted a sault on the top four looks like it has floundered before it even got started.
Last season Mourinhos team were the best of the rest, albeit 19 points behind champions Manchester City. With le s than half of this season played, City already have an advantage of 18 points over their local rivals and even the most optimistic of United fans will expect that to grow steadily over the next five months.
The terminal decline of Jose Mourinho
Ederson has had to make only 25 saves so far, while David De Gea has already let in 25 goals and Mourinho has made 21 changes to the starting XI in the last four Premier League games, shuffling his pack ever more furiously for a solution that seemingly isnt Anthony Duclair Jersey there.
The 2-2 draw with Arsenal on Wednesday night means that United have already conceded more home goals this season than they did in the whole of last season. Worse still, only the teams in the bottom five have let in more goals than Uniteds 25, which itself is only three short of the entire total they conceded in 2017-18.
Jose Mourinhos era-defining first season in English football in 2004-05 saw him shatter the free-form hegemony of Arsenals Invincibles with a Chelsea side who let in only 15 goals all season; United have leaked more than that since late September.
Optas xG model suggests that Manchester United have let in about four goals Brooks Orpik Jersey more than you wouldexpect in 2018-19, a big change from last season where United and Burnley - and just look whats happened to Sean Dyches team -both overperformed by around 13 goals each, considerably higher than any other side in the division.
TeamExpected goals againstGoals concededxGA differenceFulham28.59367.41Southampton22.42296.58Cardiff City23.59306.41Huddersfield20.55265.45Man Utd21.16253.84
A regre sion to more realistic figures was on the cards for both teams this season but in Uniteds case it is harder to Anthony Mantha Jersey justify reality biting when the club .
Anthony Martial is po sibly the only United player to have enhanced his reputation this season, scoring seven times for a team who have taken fewer shots than Crystal Palace and Fulham. Alexis Sanchez, meanwhile, has scored three goals in 2018, after netting19 for Arsenal in both 2016 and 2017.
Next up is a home game with Riley Nash Jersey Fulham, a club whose last trip to Old Trafford saw David Moyes'sUnited sling in a Premier League record 81 cro ses in a single game in a wholehearted but one-dimensional attempt to beat the Londoners.
Four-and-a-half years later, no one inside the Theatre of Dreams will be confident that theywont witne s such a lack of imagination once again.
