It feels like there’s a defining match for Manchester United every week.

Jose Mourinho’s side sit in sixth place in the Premier League and 11 points off the top of the table. That probably paints quite an accurate picture of the club’s problems this season: they’ve failed enough to be struggling, but not enough to surrender their place amongst the top clubs in the league, so far.

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That’s why it feels like there are so many defining matches: every other week United find themselves in some sort of mini crisis after a negative result or other, only to bring themselves back from the brink with a victory. And repeat.

A disappointing defeat to Fenerbahce was followed up by a convincing win over Swansea. A draw with Arsenal is creditable, usually, but the circumstances it felt like a defeat. The late goal, the fact United should have beaten an off-form Arsenal, and the fact that Jose Mourinho’s substitutions were negative and invited pressure Arsenal pressure will attest to that. And that negative feeling was followed up by a crunch Europa League victory over Feyenoord.

And so what about the last negative result suffered by Manchester United? A draw with West Ham doesn’t tell the story of that game. The drama of water bottle-gate and the magnificent display from Hammers goalkeeper Darren Randolph paint a picture of a slightly unlucky Manchester United. But with victories for Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester City, United are flailing.

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It seems like every week that there’s a negative result, it is followed by a corrective one against a lesser team or in a lesser competition. The draw with Arsenal followed by a victory over Feyenoord, a 4-0 thumping at the hands of Chelsea, followed by a 1-0 victory over an unfamiliar Manchester City XI in the EFL Cup.

How long can United keep using lesser opposition to bail themselves out after negative results in the games that matter? How long can Jose Mourinho rely on his EFL Cup run for managerial sustenance?

In both his stints at Chelsea he won the League Cup: it was his first trophy in England, only months into his stay, and the first trophy of his second spell, this time in the second season. Mourinho takes the competition fairly seriously. He recognises that it’s a piece of silverware, and one that can be lifted before fixture congestion and pressure start to define the season.

But where Louis van Gaal’s FA Cup victory wasn’t enough to save him from the sack, why does Mourinho think that a League Cup will be any different? Perhaps the Europa League will offer redemption, but that’s because United will see the prize not as a trophy in the cabinet they’ve never won before, but because it comes with a ticket to the Champions League group stages.

The difference, for Mourinho, is that this time the EFL Cup wouldn’t be seen as a statement of intent. That’s because, unlike two of the three times he won it (in 2006 and 2015), he also won the league title, too. (The other time, in 2007, Chelsea finished second and won the FA Cup). The other times, they were preludes to something else, a trophy won by a team who couldn’t stop winning.

But this time, will victory over West Ham and another League Cup semi final bail Mourinho out of yet another crisis? And if he does go on to win the trophy this season, will it really serve as consolation for spending millions of pounds last summer and still failing in the game that matter?

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