Manchester United: Every opening day match of the last decade

2017

Manchester United 4:0 West Ham

Manchester United v West Ham United - Premier League 2017

The second year of Mourinho saw a huge upheaval with the arrival of players that he had worked with before. Serbian Nemanja Matic was brought in from Chelsea and (why Chelsea would sell an excellent CDM to a direct rival that needed to upgrade their midfield is still a mystery) Belgian Romelu Lukaku was signed as the impact striker.

The preseason business resulted in a comfortable 4-0 victory with Slaven Bilic's side getting hammered at Old Trafford. The goals came from Lukaku (x2) and Frenchmen Anthony Martial and Paul Pogba.

2018

Manchester United vs Leicester City

Mourinho Has To Manage World Cup Winning Egos While Making A Title Bid

Mourinho goes into his third season in charge with nothing but a serious attempt at the title to be accepted. However, this is also the time when he tends to lose the dressing room. He lost one back at the Bernabeu with his isolation of Iker Casillas and Sergio Ramos speaking publicly against him.

Jose even managed to lose the Chelsea dressing room after winning the title with the very same players and everyone is questioning whether he will lose the United dressing room with his own inflated ego at work, making scapegoats of players who do not fit his standards.

Not only does he have to manage World Cup winning Paul Pogba who is already joking about leaving United but also has to keep a dressing room together while he makes a bid for the title.

Things are not as easy as it was before with the noisy neighbours on the rise under Pep and the gap between teams in the league getting smaller. Mourinho needs to use that ego to positive effect if he has to churn out formidable teams like Sir Alex did.

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To take a look back at Arsenal's fortunes in their opening day games of the last decade, click here.