Manchester United might only have five games to turn their season around

If you were looking to put a positive spin on Manchester United’s run of four defeats in five games, you could point to the opposition.

United have lost to three very good domestic sides and a European heavyweight who will expect to be competing for the Champions League when the leaves return to trees in spring. There is some context to this run of form.

But, United shouldn’t be losing to every good team they play. It suggests a level that this club should find reprehensible. That they are good but never great. That they expect to be beaten by the best six or seven teams in England and by Europe’s best. Losing to Tottenham, Arsenal, Brighton and Bayern Munich isn’t, in isolation, disastrous. Losing to all of them in the space of a month is.

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This season is six games old and United are already standing on a precipice. The two games they’ve won, against Wolves and Nottingham Forest, were hardly convincing. If they want to return to the Champions League next season, they need to start bridging the gap to the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham and Brighton.

For now, you could point to the injuries and point to the opposition and make an argument that this doesn’t quite constitute a crisis. But the off-field problems point in that direction, performances are poor and at the very least that cracked badge is saved in photo shop drafts ahead of this weekend.

If the argument is that United have just been beaten by good teams, then this week is the point at which the narrative should turn.

They’ve had a difficult run but Saturday brings a trip to Turf Moor and a Burnley