Jose Mourinho is under no immediate danger of the sack at Manchester United, as executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward wants to give him full opportunity to turn a miserable spell around.
United were devastated 3-0 by Tottenham Hotspur, with that following on from an equally hapless 3-2 defeat at Brighton and Hove Albion, ensuring they have lost two of their opening three games for the first time since 1992-93.
Mourinho looked at a loss as to how to respond to the problem, having given a bizarre post-match press conference where he only appealed to his historic Premier League record.
Woodward however genuinely wants to give him a chance to turn it around, despite widely reported differences between the two men over the summer window.
That marks yet another parallel with Mourinho's 2015-16 campaign at Chelsea, when Roman Abramovich very early on took the view that the Portuguese would be given as much time as possible, and only sacking him when it became apparent the situation was terminal.
While there is a hope this remains a blip, and the United hierarchy did take some encouragement from the nature of the first-half performance, some figures are already fearing the elements are in place for a similar season to Chelsea 2015-16 and they may have to re-assess their stance every few weeks.
A further complication is however the current lack of any available replacements. Spurs' Mauricio Pochettino would be United's ideal, but he is not seen as realistic mid-season, and would be viewed as difficult to get even in the close-season.
Zinedine Zidane's desire to take a break means he also wouldn't be as instantly gettable as has been perceived.
Max Allegri, Leonardo Jardim, Didier Deschamps and even Marco Silva are other names who are on United's radar in the event of the worst.
For now, though, the Old Trafford aren't considering having to replace Mourinho. The stance is that he can yet turn this around.
