Jose Mourinho's team may not be able to score league goals for love nor money these days but the Manchester United manager could be about to receive his second Football Association charge in less than a fortnight.
Last week Mourinho was slapped with a misconduct charge after comments he made about referee Anthony Taylor prior to his side's match at Liverpool - charges he has until 6pm this evening to answer.
But Mourinho is expected to have his collar felt by the FA again following Saturday's goalless draw at home to Burnley.
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Despite dominating the match - United had 37 shots at goal (their most in a Premier League game since 2003-04 when such statistics began) to Burnley's seven - the Red Devils couldn't find a way past the visitors' defence, and the frustration was too much for Mourinho.
The flashpoint was the rejection by referee Mark Clattenburg of a United penalty appeal late in the first half. Mourinho was clearly incensed by the official's refusal to point to the spot after Jon Flanagan's challenge on Matteo Darmian, and when he emerged for the second half the Portuguese was escorted to a seat in the stands at Old Trafford.
There he remained for the rest of the game, a helpless spectator as his side slipped to eighth in the table, eight points behind joint leaders Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool, all of whom cruised to comfortable victories on Saturday.
United have now won just one of their past seven league games and have failed to score in their last three. Indeed, the only league goal they managed in October was Anthony Martial's strike against Stoke on the second of the month.
Mourinho didn't make himself available for the media after United's latest setback, leaving it to his assistant, Rui Faria, to field the inevitable questions about his manager's banishment to the stand. "I don't know what happened," he said. "It is not important what Jose said. What is important is what the referee writes in his report."
According to The Sun the FA, who are awaiting Clattenburg's report on the incident, "are fed up with the Manchester United boss' antics and want to come down hard on him". He will receive an automatic one-match touchline ban and £8,000 fine for the sending-off against Burnley but the paper predicts that those punishments could be increased if Clattenburg's report is critical with even the possibility of a stadium ban.
It's not the first time that United have had cause to bemoan the officiating of Clattenburg this season; in September's Manchester derby City goalkeeper Claudio Bravo clattered into Wayne Rooney 11 minutes into the second half. "I know the rules of the game, it's obvious it was a penalty," fumed Mourinho after the 2-1 defeat. "We were punished by our bad first half, my responsibility, and we were punished by Mark with his bad decisions in the second half."
