Every new start can be difficult and Jose Mourinho's start at the Old Trafford was certainly one of the more difficult experiences in his career. Yet, after several difficult months in Manchester, the recent weeks suggest that the Special One has once again managed to prove his greatness by turning a squad full of players who only just started playing together into quite a team.
United's last defeat came back in October against Chelsea, and while it may have been quite a difficult one, it also seems to have motivated the Red Devils to work harder. Ever since that match, Manchester United have seemed like a completely different team, blowing away their competition and climbing the Premier League leaderboard.
United currently sit sixth with 39 points from 20 games, but are clearly on an uptick. The question at this time is, what can Jose's United do by the end of the season and what kind of an upset could we be looking at?
Can United Win It All?
The early weeks of this year's Premier League season were hard on the Manchester side, which made them have to do quite a bit of catching up. While United have caught up with the rest of the pack, they are still quite a bit behind the league leaders Chelsea.
A 10-point difference may not be so difficult to overcome if Chelsea were not simply playing so well. Yet, with the kind of form that Chelsea are showing, it is very hard to believe they can lose that many points in the remaining matches at all, as they only lost eight in the opening 18 games.
The odds on United winning the league at the moment are 22/1, which may normally be a nice price on such a strong side, but the current lead Chelsea have is simply too big to believe they could drop it to Manchester.
Top Four And The Champions League
One thing that everyone at the Old Trafford will be expecting of Mourinho, however, is winning a direct place in the Champions League or at least making it into the qualifiers which United should breeze through. This would mean overtaking one of Arsenal, Manchester City and Liverpool at the other three Champions League positions.
The bookies are currently pricing United at 5/4 to make it into the top four spots and given Arsenal's lead over them at the moment is only two points and United, led by Zlatan Ibrahmovic, have been crushing one after another adversary, there is little reason to believe they can't make it into the top four.
Looking at http://www.critical-reviews.com/tipbet-review/ we can quite clearly see that United are priced quite handsomely to make top four and their current form may well warrant this to be quite a solid value bet.
Failing to impress in the Premier League last season, United were destined to compete in the UEFA Europa League this term. Mourinho's men made it past the group stages into the playoffs of the competition, where their first opponent will be the French side St-Etienne.
United are priced at 1/3 to defeat the French and 4/1 to win the entire thing, making them the extreme favourites for the title.
Looking at the past of this competition, English clubs have not seemed to care too much about the title as it tends to elude them for the most part. What's more, the competition favourites also tend to be eliminated fairly early on average as the domestic competitions seem to be more important for many of the game's greats.
Still, under Mourinho's leadership, it may well turn into an obsession and should the Portuguese set his mind on this particular title, there is a great chance that United will go ahead and fight for it tooth and nail. The next few Europa League games are likely to give us more insight into how serious the Red Devils will be about the Europa League, but the one sure thing is that it would be fun to watch them take home a trophy which United don't get too many chances to fight for.
What's In The Future?
Manchester United are one of the all-time great teams of English and European football. While they have been struggling quite a bit since the departure of Sir Alex Ferguson, there is no doubt that United will be back to their title-winning ways in the near future. If anyone is up to the task, Jose Mourinho certainly is, so keep a keen eye on the Portuguese and what he can do with the rejuvenated United side.
