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Jose Mourinho lost 12 of his first 130 Premier League games. He has lost 12 of his last 25.

For such a serial winner, defeat has acquired an oddly familiar taste.

And while the negative hullabaloo might have faded since those three losses in eight September days, Mourinho remains at a watershed stage of his stellar career.

Four games in 10 days – with the Premier League visits to Anfield and Stamford Bridge of particular ­significance – will not define Manchester United’s season, but they could confirm a glaring suspicion.

You can no longer take Mourinho’s greatness for granted.

(Image: Getty)

It is not just results that beg ­questions about Mourinho’s ­managerial touch.

It is not just those 12 defeats – and five draws – in 26 Premier League matches.

It is not just that in those matches, Mourinho has produced a negative goal difference.

It is when Mourinho is lined up alongside three of his younger rivals that you wonder whether there is anything special left.

His record is special. Very, very special.

(Image: Getty)

Comfortably better than Jurgen Klopp’s and Mauricio Pochettino’s, arguably better than Pep Guardiola’s – although that is a long, ­multi-faceted argument. But in the context of what Guardiola, Klopp and Pochettino have brought to the opening acts of this Premier League season, Mourinho has seemed ­ordinary.

There are no really dramatic points differences. A victory at Anfield with a two-goal margin would take Manchester United ahead of this much-vaunted Liverpool.

Anyway, after this round of fixtures is complete, there will be plenty more twists and turns in the long months ahead.

(Image: AFP/Getty)

Mourinho was always going to need time to rectify the mediocre work carried out by David Moyes and Louis van Gaal. His summer ­recruitment should still prove ­excellent, but will take a while to flourish.

There have been snatches of the old, prime United – ­accomplished at Bournemouth, the late drama at Hull, the first half against Leicester.

Yet while impressions do not win titles, the one you get from the first two months of the season is of Mourinho the conventional amongst rivals bringing the unconventional.

A lot of it is superficial.

(Image: Man Utd via Getty)

Like Mourinho in his prime, Klopp, Guardiola and Pochettino can all do caustic but can all do charm.

Mourinho pretty much just does caustic nowadays.

His charisma has been parked.

There might well have been plenty, but we don’t hear of training ground and off-the-field ­innovations and initiatives at United.

(Image: Matthew Peters)

You hear of plenty ­elsewhere. Guardiola has had the wifi turned off, Klopp is putting a cap on young players’ wages, Pochettino orchestrated a succession of contract ­signings.

Little things, ­probably ­irrelevant, but adding up to a feeling of freshness to ­developments under this exciting trio of managers.

And then there are the playing styles. Whatever you make of fashionable ­high-pressing, Liverpool, Manchester City and Spurs run further than United.

(Image: Reuters)

That apparent lethargy might, as Mourinho has himself suggested, be a legacy of Van Gaal’s ponderous days.

LVG at United turned out to be the once-great coach whose methods had been overtaken and whose ­inspiration had run dry.

It’s too early to suggest Mourinho will follow suit. But this tasty run of games would be a good time for him to remind the younger bucks he’s still special.