Jose Mourinho is embarking on his first season in charge at Manchester United, but it hasn’t quite gone according to plan for the Portuguese so far.

United are sixth in the Premier League after just five of their first 11 games, and are already eight points adrift of league leaders Liverpool.

Disappointing defeats at home to Manchester City and away at Chelsea have questioned United’s title credentials, although they hit back last weekend with a comfortable 3-1 win over Swansea, their first league victory since September.

It’s also not going well in the Europa League, with their latest defeat at Fenerbahce leaving the Red Devils third in Group A, and ideally in need of two wins from their last two games to qualify.

A run to the League Cup quarter-finals, where they avenged their 2-1 defeat to neighbours City with victory at Old Trafford, with give United fans hope that Mourinho can bring silverware to the club in his first season, but it’s the league title that the Old Trafford faithful would love to win again.

They haven’t won it since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement in 2013, but here are THREE reasons why they will go on and win the league this season…

Jose Mourinho

Out of the current top six, Mourinho is the only manager who has won the Premier League in the last five years, and Arsene Wenger is the only other manager to win have won the title in this country.

Chelsea and Manchester City have new managers at the helm, Jurgen Klopp is embarking on his first full season at Liverpool, and Tottenham went close under Mauricio Pochettino last time around.

But none of them as of yet know how to get the job done in England. But Mourinho does.

We saw it in the way he set up against Liverpool last month. He was more than happy to take a point away from Anfield, knowing that as long as they beat the so-called lesser sides, they’d be there or thereabouts.

The irony is that they haven’t managed to do that regularly enough this season, but Mourinho’s track record at Chelsea should give United fans hope that he can win the title at Old Trafford this season.

Pogba and Ibrahimovic are beginning to click

Paul Pogba’s and Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s link-up play has been there at times this season, but none more so than against Swansea.

It looks like they are on the same wavelength now, which could spell trouble for the rest of the division.

Ibrahimovic started life in England brilliantly by netting five goals in five games and, although he didn’t score for six games, he looked back to somewhere near his best last weekend, albeit against a hopeless Swansea.

Pogba has taken a while to adapt to the English game and, although it’s still not clear where Mourinho feels is best to play him, he’s beginning to look more like the player we saw at Juventus.

But, more importantly, there’s a developing on-pitch relationship between these two and, although tougher tests will come, there are signs that these two could help fire United to the title this season.

Good balance of youth and experience

There are a lot of young players in that United squad, who play without fear and look like excellent prospects for the next five or so years.

However, several of them are good enough to make a difference now, with Marcus Rashford, Jesse Lingard, Anthony Martial, and Eric Bailly already proving invaluable to the team.

However, there is also a lot of experience in the squad – Michael Carrick and Wayne Rooney have won numerous titles at Old Trafford, while the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Juan Mata are also winners at other clubs around the world.

Getting this mix of young, hungry players and more experienced pros is integral to United’s success this season, as was proved when Mourinho brought Marouane Fellaini and Ashley Young in for the Liverpool match, and they produced disciplined performances.

It’s not only Mourinho who knows how to win the title, there are many players in that United team who have done it as well, and this could be crucial going into the latter stages of the season.