The post Sir Alex Ferguson era Manchester United have looked nothing like the Red Devils of old. The Old Trafford side has only managed to finish in the top four only once over the last four seasons; even after managerial chances and substantial financial investment look far from becoming the powerhouse that it once was.
Last season United scored a meagre 54 goals in 38 games despite having a wealth of attacking talent which included Zlatan Ibrahimović, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial and currently the world's most expensive player Paul Pogba.
However, looking past that United managed to find their way back to playing in the Champion's League after winning the Europa League and the EFL Cup. As lightly regarded as those two trophies may be ( FA Community Shield can't really count as an official trophy) winning them would serve to bring back that winning feeling that has been absent over recent seasons, after all winning is a habit.
Under Jose Mourinho the Red Devils may not have been a goal scoring machine, but the side shows lots of promise as they proved to be hard to beat last season only losing five games.
Putting that into context Chelsea also lost the same number of games, Liverpool and Manchester City lost six while Arsenal lost nine. The main difference were the points that the Red Devils dropped. United also hit the woodwork 19 times during the course of the season and Ibrahimović missed a host of chances. Taking into account all this you'd see that if things had gone in the other direction United would have been further ahead and lights at the Theatre of Dreams are set to shine brighter this season.
The signings of Romelu Lukaku and Nemanja Matic, with the possible arrival of Ivan Perisić, are a statement of intent from The Special One to reinstate United to their dominance of English football. Add that on top of Mourinho's ability to succeed across Europe as well as his previous experience in the Premier League with Chelsea you can definitely see Manchester United posing a credible threat to Chelsea's title reign.
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