Jose Mourinho has injected something ominously familiar into Manchester United's DNA

Jose Mourinho needed to repair more than a broken team when he took over as Manchester United manager in the summer of 2016 – and it appears his first mission has already been accomplished.

As United returned to the city where they won their last Champions League title in 2008, Mourinho’s rebranded line-up gave the strongest indication yet that he is close to reviving an aura that was lost during the troubled managerial reigns of David Moyes and Louis van Gaal.

Sir Alex Ferguson used United’s fearsome reputation as a weapon to shake opponents into submission during his enduring reign as Old Trafford emperor and for the first time since his departure, the fallen giants of English football have that menace back in their midst once again.

AS IT HAPPENED: CSKA Moscow v Manchester United

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The ‘it was only CSKA Moscow’ cynics will dismiss this latest United victory as little more than a mismatch that does little to prove Mourinho has built a trophy challenging team, yet this was not a one-off. This was a team moving through the gears in ruthless fashion and their confidence is growing with each passing week of this season.

As two more Romelu Lukaku goals were complimented by a Anthony Martial penalty and another goal from Henrikh Mkhitaryan set up a 4-1 win in Russia, United confirmed that their revival under Mourinho’s watch is gathering in ominous momentum.

Were it not for the magnificence of CSKA Moscow keeper Igor Akinfeev, this one-sided game would have ended up as a major embarrassment for the home side and yet it was hard to overlook the chasm in class between these two sides.

Mourinho may have only added Lukaku and Nemanja Matic to his United starting line-up after another expensive summer of transfer trading, but those two players have completed a jigsaw that he started to put in place in what was an often frantic first season in charge.

Success in the EFL Cup and Europa League confirmed that this serial winner was still capable of bringing success to a club even in a season littered with unforeseen obstacles, but this now looks like a Mourinho team beginning to click into top gear.

They were solid at the back in Moscow, resolute in midfield with the hard working Matic and Ander Herrera providing a dynamic backbone and then they should attacking prowess that sent out a warning to Europe’s top clubs.

Martial is a wildcard who will excel in a Champions League that lacks the kind of meaty tackles that often halts his progress in the English Premier League, while Lukaku is a forward who is relishing his chance to finally strut his stuff in Europe’s elite competition.

The veteran Zlatan Ibrahimovic may be scheduled to make a return to the United set-up at some stage this season, but he will be little more than a back-up player for Lukaku on a night when he took his sensational scoring record with his new club to ten goals in eight competitive matches.

Lukaku is providing the kind of rugged focal point to Mourinho’s team that Didier Drogba once offered for him at Chelsea and a glance at the United bench in Moscow confirmed they now have the strength in depth to cement their status as one of the dark horses for glory in this season’s Champions League.

Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard were useful second half substitutes for Mourinho and he still had the experienced Juan Mata in reserve as their cruised to their biggest Champions League away win since their 5-0 win against Bayer Leverkusen in 2013.

This is a United team that had solidity fused with a sprinkling of magic and that is what all the great Mourinho sides have had over the course of his remarkable career, that has seen him win the most important of trophies for Chelsea, Inter Milan and Real Madrid.

When this manager gets it right, he tends to finish a season lifting trophies and on the evidence of this latest victory, Mourinho is close to finding a winning formula at Manchester United.