Is Jose Mourinho special any more after losing key battle on all fronts?

At one point it would be have been sacrilegious, if not plain lunacy, to even suggest it but following Jose Mourinho’s miserable, humiliating return to Stamford Bridge should we be asking more seriously: Is he special any more?

Mourinho is the greatest manager in Chelsea history, winning three Premier League titles in two spells, and there is no doubt he is responsible, alongside Roman Abramovich and Matthew Harding, for completely changing the face of the club in the modern era. So even as manager of Manchester United you would have expected him to receive a hero’s welcome in west London. But he didn’t get it and instead was treated to a 4-0 defeat that has to rank as one of the most damaging and embarrassing of his managerial career.

Right from the start the signs were bad because Jose arrived at his former home to an underwhelming greeting; no announcement, no cheering, no applause, just silence. And by the time Chelsea led 2-0 there were already chants of “You’re not special any more”.

If even Chelsea fans feel ready to make statements like that then maybe it is time to be brave and ask the question out loud.

The bald facts make painful reading for the Portuguese because this was his third defeat in nine Premier League games for a club regarded as the biggest in England – and which had spent countless millions in the transfer market this summer. By contrast, in his truly special days, Mourinho took 64 matches to lose three times with Chelsea.

But the extra problem for Jose is that not only does his recent record not look good - a shaky start at Old Trafford following a miserable season at Chelsea in which he was sacked - but his long-term reputation for upsetting those he works for and alongside has also started to overshadow the achievements which justified his self-given moniker.

You can never take away his remarkable record, of course, and it would be foolish to suggest he does not remain one of the world’s greatest coaches – he does. But being special is something extra. Being special is winning Chelsea their first league title in 50 years and doing it with a swagger; being special is building a team that challenged for a decade, even without him, and turning Frank Lampard, John Terry and Didier Drogba into legends.

But since those heady days, Mourinho has made enemies in Spain, both inside and outside of Real Madrid, and his style of football has grown more pragmatic and more dour over the years – during which time other clubs have embraced more exciting brands of football.

The way he lost the dressing room in his last season at Stamford Bridge and the unseemly incident over physio Eva Carneiro has tarnished his brand, too, and made even United fans a little wary of labelling him a Messiah.

At Stamford Bridge, a week after being criticised for going to Anfield with a negative approach, his team were brutally picked apart by the pace, tenacity and positivity of Antonio Conte’s Chelsea. Make no mistake, this was a day in which Mourinho, whose second-half changes made no difference, lost the managerial battle as emphatically as his players lost the match itself.

Before kick-off he had attempted to play down the fixture insisting: “It is just a game, an important game for us against a team with the same objectives, but it is just a game.” In reality, it was more; it was a test of Manchester United’s title credentials, a test of Mourinho’s personal influence on his team and a test of the strength of his relationship with Chelsea fans. On all counts, he left with west London with uncomfortable question marks to deal with.

Only this week Mourinho admitted that if he fails to win silverware during his three-year contract at Old Trafford then the club will say “great guy, good coach, we like him, but we feel nothing special about him” – and you suspect that not being special would be the biggest pain the Portuguese could feel. It is, after all, how he identifies himself, the basis of his self-belief and lifelong success.

There is plenty of time to recover that persona. Don’t forget this is a United team which has underachieved in every season since Alex Ferguson retired – and it took Mourinho a year to transform Chelsea from a similar position and regain the title in his second spell at the Bridge.

Nevertheless, this performance was a big setback in which key players such as Paul Pogba, Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard were subdued, in which Chris Smalling was a disaster at the back and in which the home team were dominant in every phase of play.

Chelsea fans were brutal in piling on the pain. From ‘You’re getting sacked in the morning’ to ‘What a waste of money’ they gave their former manager a torrid time and ended it with a rousing chorus of ‘Jose Mourinho’ – and whether that was heartfelt or ironic is a question that may never be answered.

The one certainty is that it will take something very special from the Special One to turn this around.