One of the more enjoyable sideshows of Manchester United's banter era concerns a man called Frank Ilett.
You may not know the name, but you will most likely know the face. Or, to be precise, the hair.
Ilett, also known as The United Strand, is the Red Devils fan who pledged in October 2024 not to get a haircut until Manchester United won five games in a row. That was 14 months ago, and he is still waiting to book that trip to the barbers.
How long it took the Premier League's greatest managers to win five games in a row
Manchester United haven't got close to a five-game winning run since Ilett started his challenge, managing three victories on the spin just twice under Ruben Amorim.
And history tells us that he could be waiting a little while longer, as even some of the greatest Premier League managers took their time to tick off that particular milestone.
Amorim is 59 games into his Old Trafford tenure, but that is almost half the time it took one of his peers to win five in a row.
When Mikel Arteta took charge of Arsenal in December 2019, the Gunners were a shadow of the slick winning machine that leads the table this term.
In fact, it took the Spaniard 109 matches to taste five successive victories, completing that run with a 5-0 Boxing Day rout of Norwich City in 2021 - almost exactly two years into the role.
Another manager who had to wait until after they reached a century of games was Roberto Mancini, whose first game in charge of Manchester City was on Boxing Day 2009.
He finally completed five wins in a row in his 101st game - a 5-2 League Cup victory at Wolves in October 2011 - and City famously went on to win their first title in 44 years that season.
If you think Mancini timed that winning run to perfection, Arsene Wenger judged it even better.
The Frenchman took 83 games to triumph five times in a row, but when he did it was part of a nine-match winning streak in March to May 1998 that propelled Arsenal to the Premier League and FA Cup double.
Wenger's main adversary during those early years, Sir Alex Ferguson, was slightly quicker, achieving the feat in 66 matches. The legendary Manchester United manager took charge in November 1986, so it was in the old First Division, but he saved all his success for the Premier League era.
Manager |
Team |
Number of matches until five successive wins |
Pep Guardiola |
Manchester City |
5 |
José Mourinho |
Chelsea |
16 |
Jürgen Klopp |
Liverpool |
61 |
Sir Alex Ferguson |
Manchester United |
66 |
Arsène Wenger |
Arsenal |
83 |
Roberto Mancini |
Manchester City |
101 |
Mikel Arteta |
Arsenal |
109 |
Like Ferguson, Jurgen Klopp arrived at a North West giant that were in a worse state than he left it. The former Liverpool boss arrived in October 2015, first tasting victory five times in a row after 61 games, early in his second season.
Each of Chelsea's three Premier League-winning bosses hit the ground running, with Antonio Conte, Jose Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti winning five in a row inside 17, 16 and six games respectively.
And Pep Guardiola won his opening five matches in charge of Manchester City at the start of the 2016/17 season, although his side finished only third that term.
