Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho is bringing back the glory days after matching a record last achieved by Sir Alex Ferguson
Red Devils struggled in the David Moyes-Louis van Gaal era, but now it appears the Theatre of Dreams can be just that again
IT'S fairly safe to assume there will never be a Premier League manager as successful at a single club than Sir Alex Ferguson was at Manchester United.
The Scottish boss lead the Old Trafford outfit to a phenomenal 13 Prem titles during his reign - being named the league's Manager of the Year in 11 of those.
When Fergie called time on his career at the Theatre of Dreams, everyone knew things would never quite be the same.
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But when 'The Chosen One' David Moyes took over, things quickly took a turn for the worse in the red half of Manchester.
In the former Everton man's opening season, the Red Devils finished seventh, having won the league just 12 months prior under Ferguson, costing Moyes his job.
Enter Louis van Gaal, a manager with a wealth of top European club management experience - as well as some international knowledge.
Yet even the Dutch legend could do nothing to stem the tide, with United consistently churning out a display or dreary performances across his two terms, finishing well adrift of the leading pack in both.
However, after a shaky start, Jose Mourinho appears to be leading Manchester United in the right direction.
After all, even Fergie endured something of a mixed bag when he first arrived at the daunting Old Trafford ground.
With the weight of the world on his shoulders, the ever-confident Mourinho looked under pressure early, but has recovered brilliantly by stringing together an incredible 15-game unbeaten run.
It is the first time United have come anywhere near that mark since Ferguson left the club, with Moyes' best effort standing at just seven games and LVG just ten.
Under Ferguson, United reached - or surpassed - the 15-game unbeaten mark an incredible ten times - with the best ever run coming in 1999 and 2011, when the Red Devils strung together 29 games without a loss.
So while there is still work to be done in order to catch up with that, the signs are no doubt positive - and a 3-0 drubbing of last season's Premier League champions Leicester in their last game out is testament to that.
Part of the reason is simply confidence, but another is the volume of shots being taken.
United were forced into a stagnant, dreary, possession-heavy style of play under Van Gaal and notched a mere 144 shots in their 38 games, just 3.8 per game.
However, this season, Mourinho's United have hit the target 146 times already - at a much more healthy 6.1 per game.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic has come in and instantly stamped his authority on the team - and the league in general - finding the net 15 times already, becoming the oldest player ever to manage the feat at 35 years and 125 days old.
United's ability to kill of the game against Leicester - with two goals in just 88 seconds - is another reason to be optimistic if you're a United fan.
Rather than sneaking a goal and sitting back for a one-goal cushion, Mourinho ordered his troops to kill the game off immediately... Zlatan and Henrikh Mkhitaryan duly obliged.
While there is a long, old road ahead of them and the Premier League title is all but out of reach this season, the signs on show are positive, the progress has been rapid of late and it could well be the glory days are coming back to United sooner rather than later.
