Victories featuring the fingers-crossed, gormless pairing of Phil Jones and Tom Cleverley in central midfield are bound to be as rare as hen’s teeth. Allowed huge mounts of space by the geriatric, stiff-upper-lipped London-Lad pairing of Steve Sidwell and Scott Parker, Messrs, Van Persie and Rooney had the run of Craven Cottage and enjoyed themselves tremendously. This season they will rarely get as easy a first half as they did at Craven Cottage.

It was hard not to feel sorry for Fulham’s embattled manager, Martin Jol; but, if it’s horses for courses, his team never stood a chance. A lackluster defeat at Southampton last weekend and a mid-week Capital One Cup exit to Leicester City in midweek have Jol teetering like a drunk on the North Face of the Eiger. After having made the footballing Lord of laissez-faire, Dimitar Berbatov, his captain for the day, it may be that the big Dutchman has given up the ghost already and is simply awaiting the whisper of the axe. The latest bookmaker free bets can be especially interesting.

Fulham fell a goal behind only nine minutes in as a sharp United effortlessly dissected the Cottagers anemic defense. Beautifully functional in execution, Robin Van Persie hoovered up a long Nemanja Vidic pass and swiveled exquisitely before playing in an unselfish Rooney, who cut the ball back to Valencia. The Ecuadorian winger took his time and expertly prodded home his chance.

With Tom Cleverley and Phil Jones quicker than Sidwell and Parker in the first half, who needed Michael Carrick or Marouane Fellaini? But having made a few useful plays, once relaxed, Tom Cleverley really does love to give the ball away to the opposition and Scott Parker seized on two telegraphed efforts. The first time, he, too missed with his pass, but the second time he put in a fine pass to Dimitar Berbatov. Fortunately, Rafael Da Silva made a clever, well-timed tackle to frustrate the Bulgarian striker. Moments later, however, United dismantled any sense of self-esteem the West Londoners had quickly built up, scoring twice more in the space of four minutes.

The brilliant Adnan Januzaj was the instrument of the second goal. After having been dispossessed by Parker, Parker went down in a dramatic heap after losing it back to the young Belgian. But the referee, Lee Probert, was having none of it and, while Parker jumped back up to argue, the baby-faced assassin was off to the races before passing to an unmarked Van Persie, who powered the ball home from 15 yards out. Two minutes more and Rooney made child’s play of a tap-in after a fine sweeping diagonal run made it 3-0.

In the second half, not helped at all by injuries to Rafael, Cleverley and Evans, United made three substitutions and suddenly turned promiscuously lax. It would be pointless to blame Chris Smalling, Marouane Fellaini or Shinji Kagawa, when collective vanity and complacency were the true problem. With Jones and Fellaini now policing midfield, United were too static to to think in terms of their usual counterattacking tactics. Apart from Rooney, Van Persie, and the ebulient Januzaj, United’s collective confidence seemed to suddenly drain away.

Relentlessly sloppy, United looked all set to botch yet another match after the 65th minute, when a 20-yard shot by Alexander Kacaniklic pinged into the net after taking a deflection off Valencia. Still way too casual even then, United began to miss pass after pass and stopped chasing and pressing. And things really tightened up tremendously after Jol made a couple of wise decisions. First, in the 75th minute, the big Dutchman substituted Berbatov’s partner-in-sloth Bryan Ruiz with Adel Taarabt. Soon after, on came Darren Bent for a tired Scott Parker. The graft and passing prowess that Taraabt added to his team’s midfield almost paid off with a couple of headers from Bent and Berbatov that hit United’s upright.

The subdued home crowd were only roused when it came to booing. Letting Bryan Ruiz have it when he left the field and Darren Bent when he came on. There was also a serious confrontation between Marouane Fellaini and right back Sascha Riether after the Fulham defender clearly appeared to stamp on Adnan Januzaj. Clearly, Januzaj, with his amazing capacity to dribble, enrage his opponents and draw free kicks so well, is already becoming a special part of the Premier League.

Considering the concussion suffered by Tom Cleverley and the high number of foul and indignities perpetrated on Adnan Januzaj, it’s about time Marouane Fellaini was kept out on the pitch to serve and protect his teammates. This protection factor is, right now, essential!

Nevertheless, to all you United haters out there, it’s not over till the obese lady sings her aria! Rumors of the imminent demise of the red devils are very much hyperbolically exaggerated. We have won the Premier League without a defense more than once and it is still within the realm of fathomable plausibility that many of the other clubs are still flawed enough that we can do it again! Sure it was only Stoke City led by Sparky Hughes–the Typhoid Mary of our club alumni–but with Moyesie finally having the wherewithal to get his substitutions right (“It’s our attack, stchoopid!”), the quick-quick frontal juggernaut of Chicharito, Rooney and Van Persie proved simply too much for Stoke’s knackered thugs as the clock ticked down. All United have to do now is keep doing the same thing consistently and the rest will be like falling off a bicycle!

Last Wednesday Our Dear Lads were a goal up in two minutes. This time we were one down after three. It all began when Stoke’s left back Erik Pieters picked up the ball, eased casually past Smalling and Cleverley and crossed to the ungainly Crouch. Crouch botched his shot and De Gea made a nice reactive save, before trusting Evans with a pass. Forever positionally challenged, Jonny Evans’ ineptitude as he attempted a point-blank panic ‘pass’ back in the direction of his stunned goalie really did seem like a slapstick gag when it somehow bounced off the bamboozled Spaniard into the goalmouth, crossed the goal line, got kicked away by Evans, but then ended up back in goal after hitting an equally stunned Peter Crouch.

Minutes later, Nani completely overcooked a half-decent shooting chance from the edge of the box and began to be the subject of a torrent of verbal abuse from a section of United fans. The booing became even more vociferous after he made a dud pass outside his own box to Walters, who came close to setting up a Crouch volley that narrowly missed. Now with Nani clearly showing how genuinely upset he felt at being the butt of the cruel home crowd’s abuse, he almost caused another away goal as he gave away a sloppy ball to N’Zonzi, whose exquisite, precise diagonal ball was chested down by Crouch, before trickling away to Walters, whose hard effort was brilliantly saved by De Gea. Minutes later, De Gea pulled off one that had the whole stadium buzzing as he dived to his right to keep out a fifteen-yard thunderbolt from Marko Arnautovic.

Then a couple of real shockers. The second goal came three minutes before the interval as Van Persie scored his eighth goal of the season with a follow-up after Begovic had produced a one-handed save to keep out a Rooney header. But in only two minutes Stoke stole their lead back as Phil Jones fouled Arnautovic on the edge of the box. The Austrian then fired a free kick with the movement of metal-tipped whip. De Gea dived in time to reach the hard curving ball, but it was so accurately placed that it carried on off his fingertip into the top right corner of his net.

Just how desperately the team needs Adnan Januzaj showed the second he arrived on the hour mark of the match, simultaneously accompanied by boos for Nani as the Portuguese winger made a sad exit. With Antonio Valencia now slotting in nicely at right back, the Ecuadorian second wave began to make the Potters defense bend in too many directions at once. He won a corner for Van Persie and Wayne Rooney was able to leap high and nod a hard, glancing header which the up to then perfect Asmir Begovic misjusged and allowed in over his head. Two minutes later Patrice Evra, barely noticeable for much of the match, charged all the way down the left flank and served up a delicious cross for Chicharito Hernandez to also nod home.

It wasn’t pretty and United in no possible way looked like champions. They did, however, pull themselves together enough to show a definite sense of determination and desire. It turned out to be the 25th Premier League game in which Robin van Persie has scored. United have won 20 of those matches and drawn the other five. This seems to be be a lot more than an omen.

Before the match, United’s 18-year-old wing wünderkind, Adnan Januzaj, inked a five year contract and had a press conference accompanied by Moyes and the club’s money man, Ed Woodward. This was about as good as the day was going to get. Januzaj made a fantasy day of his first start two weeks ago against Sunderland when he scored both goals; unfortunately, lightning did not strike twice. Although we all knew that the kid had helped temporally paper over some severe cracks in United’s team, especially a desperately poor defense, quality will tell and United just don’t have it. Having sat on the lead and squandered too many opportunities, it seemed to be an inevitable moment of justice when Adam Lallana wiped out United’s complacent lead with a tap-in after a late corner.

Januzaj was in the thick of things from the beginning, not the least of which was being blatantly sent flying by a studs-up Nathaniel Clyne. Still, aside from a lot of nice dribbling and a couple of killer passes into empty space, Januzaj and his partner, right winger Nani got little succor from their strikers, Wayne Rooney and Robin Van Persie. Januzaj’s third effort, however, did the trick. His perfectly weighted through ball found a slightly offside Wayne Rooney with only the goalkeeper to beat. The referee Michael Jones did not blow his whistle, though, and Southampton’s goalie Artur Boruc made a fine save from Rooney, but had no chance of retrieving when Robin van Persie moved wide and slammed home the rebound in the 26th minute.

It was only the third goal Southampton have conceded this season, which is pretty impressive considering the PL season is already eight matches in. The Saints showed grit and good organization, proving that the point they earned at Anfield before the international break was no fluke. Had they known how to score goals also, they might well have given United another hammering. Atypically, their sole big ticket item, striker Dani Osvaldo–repeatedly given the run of the box by a reticent Jonny Evans–botched a true sitter when Rooney lost possession close to his own box. Lucky for United, Osvaldo froze in front of goal and fired a mild shot that David De Gea saved easily.

Although there was some fairly decently entertaining end-to-end stuff from both sides in the first half, the second half was mostly flat and lame as both Rooney and Osvaldo missed more chances early in. How Rooney missed an exquisite Nani pass in the 73rd minute is beyond all ken. Then again, why Nani was denied a penalty after being yanked down by Luke Shaw in the penalty area on two separate occasions only referee Mike Jones will ever know. With bookings at a premium this season, one of the main differences between the two teams, was United’s team-wide reticence to get stuck in with their tackling. Marouane Fellaini, who was shouldered with much of the blame for United’s lame performance by assorted pundits, seemed terribly reticent to throw full force into his blocks and tackles. As this is the main reason the big Belgian was brought in, one can only conjecture that Moyes gave very clear instructions to his team not to foul. Unfortunately, manager Mauricio Pocchetino’s Saints/ showed no such squeamishness.

All in all, deep into the second half, the game was still in the balance, within Southampton enjoying the lion’s-share of possession, when Van Persie headed a Rooney corner on to the crossbar, Later, Januzaj executed a swerving shot from 25 yards that Boruc made a fantastic save of. Even the disappointing Marouane Fellaini missed a rebound after collecting a rebound on the edge of the penalty area. In between these efforts Southampton kept the ball and stayed in the game with nothing but hard work and much running. Indeed, over the last fifteen minutes or so–Fergie’s old squeaky-bum time–Southampton definitely finished the stronger. as Lallana and Clyne both forced fantastic late saves from De Gea. Thus when the super-lunged Clyne won a late corner, substitute James Ward-Prowse’s effort saw the centre-back pairing of Phil Jones and Jonny Evans standing around casually, leaving Southampton’s centre-half Dejan Lovren to divert it towards goal and the completely unmarked Saints’ captain Adam Lallana to toe-poke the equalizer home.

United are now eight points behind the league leaders Arsenal. This is not good! Moyes may well ponder the calm, relaxed manner in which Morgan Schneiderlin and Victor Wanyama pulled the strings in midfield, while the selfless leadership and relentless running from Lallana meant Saints always had the kind of options United never had. With all the fuss about the fiendish training methodology utilized by Moyes and Round, one can’t help but wonder about what keeps happening late in every game. United have only had two wins in seven matches. and the transfer window in January still seems a long long way away. A slow Stoke City are up next in the Premier League and, normally, a sense of cautious confidence would be the order of the day. Nothing could be further from the truth right now, however, as our perfidious old boy, Sparky Hughes, and his band of oversize warriors will be bound and determined to catch us at a low ebb.

United’s pre-match prep was not helped by another training-ground injury to Wayne Rooney. The club’s stand-out performer of the season thus far suffered a shin injury on the eve of the game. Rooney’s absence took the number of changes to the United team beaten by West Bromwich Albion on Saturday to nine. Only David de Gea and Michael Carrick remained from the third defeat in four Premier League matches. United kept it compact and disciplined from the start, clearly focused on muting Shakhtar’s high-quality Brazilian front line led by the buccaneering Douglas Costa and Taison. Fellaini, Carrick and Cleverley kept their shape in central midfield, although their dreadful passing patterns–so very, very predictable throughout–did them no favors at all. With Patrice Evra pinned back by the pure speed of Dario Srna and Taison, Danny Welbeck and Antonio Valencia were more auxiliary wing backs than support for a lonesome Robin Van Persie.

Shakhtar remained equally as cautious in the first half. The tricky Costa and Luiz Adriano each did well to dispossess Fellaini a couple of times deep in the Donetsk half, allowing the home side to break forward unimpeded. Rafael da Silva could barely cope with Costa and he found Adriano, whose low cross teased its way across De Gea’s six-yard box but found nobody, a handful also. Then United got a moment of maximum luck when Cleverley clearly caught Alex Teixeira late inside the penalty area. Fortunately, the referee, Pavel Kralovec, dismissed Shakhtar’s appeals for a spot kick.

Cleverley created United’s first chance of the match when he chipped a high pass over Shakhtar’s central defence for Van Persie. The Dutchman shifted to his right and unleashed a trademark shot with his left, only to see the ball rise over Andriy Pyatov’s crossbar. Fellaini had problems keeping possession early on, but his presence began to tell later in the match as, playing with his back to the opposition goal, the Belgian warrior wore them down with his tackling and ability to fill in midfield holes. He may indeed not look like 30 million quid, but, once he gets used to his teammates, his kind of obstinate, albeit often awkward, determination is going to be a major factor in breaking down opponents late.

Eighteen minutes into the first half, Rafael’s throw-in found Fellaini, who muscled away his marker, crossing low to the near post where Shakhtar’s big awkward center-back Yaroslav Rakitskiy lost his footing. Welbeck then managed to slip inside unmarked and softly flick home Fellaini’s delivery beyond Pyatov into the far corner of the net. The loud Donbass Arena fell silent, except, of course, for the freezing United fans up high in the cheap seats.

The Ukrainians enjoyed the majority of possession without ever giving De Gea much trouble. Fellaini and Vidic both went into the referee’s book in rapid succession for professional fouls on Taison and Costa respectively, both fouls presenting Shakhtar’s captain, Dario Srna, with direct free-kick opportunities from 25 yards out. One that he smashed into United’s wall, another which was wasted. Fellaini was withdrawn shortly afterwards and his replacement, Ryan Giggs, playing in the 145th game in the Champions League surpassed Raul’s record number of appearances in the competition. The big-hearted Donbass crowd, in spite of their team loyalty, stood up and gave Giggsy a long round of passionate applause.

United held fast with nine men behind the ball and really looked like they might pull off a famous away victory until the 75th minute when the Shakhtar’s big central defender Rakitskiy, out to make up for his crucial early mistake, strode down the left flank and fired a cross into the heart of United’s box. Vidic managed to block it, but it got away from him, bouncing to Taison who beat De Gea with an unblockable rocket into the roof of the net from 12 yards out. Six minutes later, Taison almost scored again with a deflected shot off Smalling but De Gea reacted brilliantly, tipping it over the bar.

When the whistle blew, the relief on David Moyes’ ruddy face was there for everybody to see. A good, albeit not great, evening’s work.

Although Wayne Rooney may be a pain in the arse: Someone we see a train wreck in wait for somewhere in the infinite distance. All is now definitely forgiven! After all kinds of soap opera machinations at the start of the season–not all of which were his fault, to be sure, Rooney has gone into the second month of the season on fire. On the night, while covering every slippery blade of grass at Old Trafford, he was downright inspirational. 4-2 looks simply like a successful win, but the truth is that Bayer Leverkusen really were comfortably beaten. The main reason was the Scouser striker. Still covering up a head wound with a toweling bandage—an injury that had kept him out of the club’s defeat at Liverpool and England’s draw in Ukraine–Rooney put the red devils ahead in the 22nd minute.

Leverkusen felt Van Persie was offside by the corner flag in the build up, but then had a mass hissy-fit when, with the referee’s assistant standing directly in front of of the incident, he failed to spot Valencia, standing in a clearly offside position as he tried to block Bayer’s keeper Bernd Leno’s line of view. This allowed Rooney to charge in and push a Patrice Evra cross home. And despite Bayer’s righteous protests, the referee allowed the goal to stand.

This was Rooney’s 200th goal for United, he now stands fourth in line as part of the clubs goalscoring history behind Jack Rowley at 211, who he will certainly catch this season, Denis Law at 237, and, at 249, Sir Bobby Charlton.

United were uneven for the rest of the half, still prone to give the ball away to the German team’s hard-pressing midfield. Indeed, Leverkusen showed signs of life after Rooney’s goal, although Simon Rolfes seemed to miss the presence of his usual sidekick, Sven Bender, who stayed on the bench until the second half. Still, despite some ragged passing, it was definitely United, with Marouane Fellaini patrolling midfield with a kind of effortless majesty on his full debut, who were well in control and creating the better chances, as Rooney went just slightly off target with a free-kick and Shinji Kagawa’s shot was deflected just wide by Leno.

Still, nobody was even slightly surprised when a casual United defense made a hash of getting a loose ball out of their penalty box in the 54th minute. A slipshod pass from Rio Ferdinand didn’t make it to Patrice Evra and Leverkusen’s captain, Simon Rolfes, was there to volley home beautifully from fifteen yards out to make it 1-1.

This was just the bit of a scare United needed. It took a while, though. Another sixteen minutes before Robin van Persie’s acrobatic volley allowed them to grab the lead again, It was only justice after United had attacked the Germans in wave after relentless wave. The sitter Rooney missed after collecting a long De Gea kick and casually rounding Leno was a gob-smacker. The two wide open, gaping chances Van Persie missed after exquisite set-ups from Valencia and Carrick were a shocker, too. But then Rooney did it again, twice. Firing one home at the near post minutes later after ghosting past a tired but static Bayer defense as a clever Valencia pass found him. Rooney then set up another for Antonio Valencia with a pass weighted to perfection, allowing the Ecuadorian winger all the time in the world to make long diagonal strides into the box before firing home in the 79th minute.

Omer Toprak’s late second goal for Bayer was the result of another slipshod pass from Rio Ferdinand coupled with a slow-witted lack of concentration from an otherwise faultless David De Gea and an accidental deflection off Carrick. One of these years the defense will get it together early in the season, I pray.

Along with finally seeing a return of confidence and form in Antonio Valencia and witnessing the superb quick feet and awesome passing skills of Shinji Kagawa, Moyes will clearly feel happy to be finally receiving the benefits of United’s truculent refusal to do business with Chelsea. Here was the evidence that the club’s early season stance was righteous in spite of much criticism. It was also good strategy for Moyes to substitute Rooney late with Hernandez. The two clearly did not act out any kind of rapprochement as the striker left the field, but the crowd, which stood up en masse for him, and its passionate applause lasted for minutes and surely reiterated to our sensitive Scouser that he really is truly adored by the majority. Well, of course, there was crusty Sir Alex Ferguson, who remained glued to his padded seat, but he’s just had hip surgery!

All hail the new wonder kid! On the Fiftieth anniversary of the day when a fine-boned Belfast B’y by the name of George Best made his debut for Manchester United against West Bromwich Albion, a new kid with the number 44 on his back popped up like a mealy worm out of an apple. Having witnessed both miracles in the flesh (so to speak!), let me tell you, dear reader, that this new kid, a certain Adnan Januzaj, a brilliant Belgian winger of Albanian extraction, is about as the Real Deal as the Real Deal can get! Barring some horrific injury or accident Adnan Januzaj is going to be a Superstar!

Anyway, more on that later. Manchester United were more or less mediocre on the day. Not particularly bad on a day when they collectively gave their new manger, David Moyes, the gift of his first win ever at Old Trafford, just plain old mediocre. Although Robin Van Persie had a smashing time in midweek, scoring twice for the Netherlands, making himself his country’s highest goalscorer ever, he has been a bit of a dud for United of late. Still, he showed the kind of calm ruthlessness we have come to expect of him when he stroked home a penalty kick right on the blessed cusp of half-time. Paired up with his partner Wayne Rooney again, in spite of the high number of chances they were selflessly dished up by their teammates, nothing would go in, No big deal, though. Nothing troubling. It was ringingly clear that this was just a temporary status quo and that soon the floodgates will open and they really will both score goals galore. When Wayne finally did take his chance in the 81st minute it was from a dead-ball free kick, and it was very pleasing to see the Scouser dance happily after scoring, his arms both raised to the home crowd in a gesture of joy and supplication.

Awkward and disjointed in the first half, United genuinely improved in the second half after the introduction of Januzaj and their new club-record buy, Marouane Fellaini. Those famous ‘Bog Brush’ Afro-wigs, so popular with Everton fans for so long, were pulled out of thousands of pockets as the smiling Belgian midfielder was gifted the unilateral joy of 76,000 clapping fans. After that happy moment, United really never looked back.

In the first half, United simply couldn’t do anything fluid. Moyes’ pairing of Anderson and Carrick in central midfield simply couldn’t get going: Repeatedly missing passes and letting themselves get caught in possession. Only one chance fell Palace’s way as Dwight Gayle caught Rio Ferdinand badly out of position, running in diagonally from the left, only to clip his shot over an advancing David de Gea but wide of the far post. Otherwise, Palace never looked even slightly like scoring. But, having dodged innumerable counterattacking bullets, the Londoners blew it big time as the big, lumbering Kagisho Dikgacoi, after numerous warnings and a yellow card from one of many attempts to stifle Ashley Young, let his frustration get the better of him and drew a second yellow. It was definitely a foul on Young, but, the United winger actually received the illegal tackle a foot or so short of the penalty box. A clever player with the ability to control his body well, Young fell far and fast forward, his momentum taking him into the box before referee Jon Moss blew his whistle and pointed to the penalty spot.

Young may have been successful in drawing a penalty, but, over all, it was not a good match for him. With Young fighting desperately to retain his place on the team, and, no doubt looking over his shoulder to see Nani, Valencia and now Zaha and Valencia breathing down his neck, he did himself no career favors by adding one more demerit to his already fat portfolio of diving offenses. Repeatedly reprimanded by Sir Alex Ferguson for being the sort of conniving ham who gives United a bad name, his latest offense, when he dived with his leg waggling after receiving a slight touch by Dikgacoi smacked of the kind of shameless theatricals relentlessly used by Robert Pires, Thierry Henri and Patrick Vieira in the Arsenal team of the late-nineties. Yet Palace barely threatened De Gea’s goal, either before or after they were down to ten men.

United came only really close once in the first half when Van Persie smacked a right-footed volley against the crossbar in the first half and Julián Speroni only began to have a busy afternoon once Adnan Januzaj, looking like an 18-year-old blond waif, made his Premier League debut as a substitute. Confident and relaxed, Januzaj sprinting along the wing line with the ball seemingly glued to his foot in a Messiesque manner, proceeded to give fits to a number of hapless markers. Having brought on Fellaini in the 62nd minute for Anderson, Carrick began to find more passing corridors opening up. With Evra bringing up the rear, Januzaj kept pumping in crosses, forcing throw-ins and drawing fouls. The latter proved crucial as he was clattered by on the edge of the penalty box by Jed Moxey, winning the 81st minute free-kick which Rooney wickedly span around the wall, three inches too low for a diving Speroni, who had guessed right, to reach. It was an exquisite clincher.

Tuesday at Old Trafford sees a visit from the Bundesliga‘s number three team, Bayer Leverküssen. A youthful team full of hungry academy players led by Sven Bender, a box-to-box dynamo with relentless energy, they will be a good season opener to the altered tempo of the Champions League.

It would be wrong to call this game boring. There were episodes of high-speed daring-do from both sides, but next to no clear-cut chances at all. Surprisingly, it was the very first 0-0 stalemate in 77 Premier League matches at Old Trafford, stretching back to April, 2007.

In a game played at a hiccup speed with sudden slow-downs and breathing breaks, it was more like a Welterweight championship bout without blood than full-tilt football. Preferring to go without a traditional striker like Torres, Ba or Lukaku, Chelsea concentrated on dominating a gummed-up central midfield, which forced yeoman, concentrated performances out of a United midfield featuring Cleverley, Carrick and a busy link-up-man-cum-striker in Wayne Rooney. Forced to work twice as hard against the relentless shifting gears engineered by the slaloming Oscar, Hazard, De Bruyne and Lampard, they were well up to the task. Had the three worked even half as diligently for Ferguson last year as they did for Moyes on the night, United would have clinched the Premier League championship much earlier. Of course, Juan Mata, who was omnipresent last season was on the bench for reasons only Mourinho knows; nevertheless., United played with the greater sense of swashbuckle between the two teams. Definitely more entertaining and attack-minded than Chelsea, United still lacked the kind of beautiful arrogance and composure on the bell that we expect to really make a difference in big games.

Neither Petr Cech nor David de Gea had to make a truly tough save. Out of the few chances created, United’s pressure was the more sustained. Yet Antonio Valencia could not dominate Ashley Cole as he has on other occasions. At the same time, a lackadaisical Eden Hazard had no heart for repeatedly dribbling his way around a spunky Phil Jones. With young Danny Welbeck playing on the left flank, his obvious discomfort level at having repeated bruising encounters with the Chelsea right back Bronislav Ivanovic was painfully obvious for the whole crowd. Forced to abandon the superb composure he showed against Swansea last week, Welbeck, having muffed a couple of clear-cut chances over the first fifteen minutes after superb set-ups from Rooney, never seemed able to get his mind into the game enough early, when it mattered most urgently. The stubborn enterprise he showed last week abandoned him against the West London team and he was more or less a passenger from then on.
United had a righteous call for a second-half penalty when Tom Cleverley fired a shot from the edge of the penalty box which struck Frank Lampard’s hand. Yet the referee, Martin Atkinson, waved away United’s appeals although the same offenses has already been punished multiple times this season and David Moyes referred specifically to the handball penalty Tottenham Hotspur won at Crystal Palace on the opening weekend at the post-game press conference.

Both ‘new’ managers were offered massive applause by the crowd at Old Trafford and they spent a little time on the sidelines engaging in good-natured boyish banter. For Chelsea’s captain John Terry, having Mourinho along for the ride already seems to be paying dividends as the iron-hard old veteran was quietly competent alongside Gary Cahill at the heart of their defense. Their job, handling Robin Van Persie and Wayne Rooney, meant they had a job of work cut out for them. Rooney was a busy bee all night, covering every blade of grass–in spite of both sets of fans’ awareness that he has agitated for a move to the London club–filling in the spaces between United’s undermanned midfield and his Dutch partner. Indeed, despite looking grim all night, nobody could have doubted Rooney’s commitment on the night. Atypical of the Scouser’s will and desire was the play of the game when chased down a jinking Ramires in the 87th minute as, acting as a temporary left-back for a leggy Patrice Evra, he executed an exquisite slide-tackle, fully aware that the Brazilian was trying hard to manufacture a penalty out of losing possession. Unfortunately, his link-up play with Robin van Persie was null and void and it will be interesting to see whether Moyes will try them together again next week at Anfield or bring in a well-rested Shinji Kagawa. When football fans do the usual this Saturday and check football scores live they will certainly be hoping for a more exciting scoresheet than some of this weekends 0-0 results.

Meanwhile, Mourinho, well aware of the lack of mobility in Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand, played no strikers, hoping United would be vulnerable to the speed and trickery of Andre Schürrle, Eden Hazard, Kevin De Bruyne and Oscar. Clearly, the Poruguese master coach feels no faith in Demba Ba or United’s long-time tormentor, Fernando Torres, making it very clear why he wants Wayne Rooney so much. For Davie Moyes it was somewhat of a tactical triumph in a game where possession was of the essence. And when ‘The Special One’ finally altered course an hour in, it was to bring on Fernando Torres instead of the callower powerhouse that is Romelo Lukaku. Having failed to even bring Ba along in the squad, Mourinho seemed like a bit of a ditherer. I look forward to the Stamford Bridge rematch when both sides’ kinks will have been ironed out.

It was a scrappy game and United were forced to play off the back foot for the first half hour of the match as the Swans attacked relentlessly. The Welsh club’s new signing Jose Cañas was particularly combative from the beginning, attempting a long shot and then careening into United’s winger Antonio Valencia for which he drew a booking. Soon after,Valencia , his hackles well and truly up. drew his own yellow for a reciprocal foul on his Spanish marker. What followed was a very sloppy, but very exciting introductory comedy of errors.

Minutes later, a sloppy clearance by United’s keeper David De Gea allowed Swansea’s burning-hot striker Michu an easy chance, which he botched. Seconds on, an equally careless back-pass by right back Phil Jones fell to Nathan Dyer, whose weak shot was smothered by De Gea. At the other side of the pitch, Jones, who was very aggressive in running the overlap with Valencia, had a fine shot finger tipped over the bar by Vorm.
It was all very tit for tat and somewhat slipshod until Swansea’s early industry came a cropper as Robin Van Persie and Danny Welbeck struck twice inside two minutes just after the half-hour.

The industrious Robin Van Persie, who seemed to be everywhere around the Swans’ box, picked up the ball after the cagy veteran Ryan Giggs found him with a superb lob. Out of nothing, with two Swansea defenders blocking his sightline, the Dutch genius fired off a fantastic rising strike in the 27th minute that had all the devastating beauty of a Roberto Duran uppercut. Two minutes later, Van Persie looked even more impressive as a creator when, fed by Giggs again, he supplied a long, loping curved pass which Danny Welbeck only had to slot home past a marooned diving Vorm.

United were never again under serious threat. With Welbeck and Van Persie playing with such passion, everybody else’s performance seemed a mere afterthought. Vidic and Ferdinand, who both seemed happy to turn back the hands of time looked genuinely chuffed to be playing in tandem again. And Ryan Giggs, in spite of being beaten to the ball a number of times in 50/50 tackles that he would once have sped away from, still showed some sublime moments of skill, not to mention jinking runs that almost got goals on two separate occasions. First, he broke clear of a lead-footed Ashley Williams, but his speed has deserted him and he was caught by the Welsh pivot just as he was about to shoot and, even better, he was able to slalom around three Swansea defenders before firing across the face of goal after Vorm did a fantastic job saving a vicious Welbeck shot.

A third goal was inevitable as United completely dominated the second half and Robin Van Persie fired another rising, awe-inspiring beauty past Vorm in the 72nd minute after he was cleverly played in by substitute Wayne Rooney.

Minutes later, United, having become a little sloppy, allowed Swansea’s new striker, their record £12m signing from the Ivory Coast, Wifried Bony, on as a substitute, to gather a small degree of recompense when he picked up one of Danny Welbeck’s more idiotic attempts at a clever back-pass before bulldozing his way into creating a little room before firing a fifteen-yarder home past De Gea in the 82nd minute.

Yet United did not allow themselves to fall into the same lax patterns they showed last season. The defense tightened up again and the red devils added a fourth goal in injury time as the conundrum that is Danny Welbeck–brilliant at times and then error-prone in others–had an exquisite moment of creativity, showing off some incredibly subtle technique as he beat two defenders before firing a difficult chip at an extremely obtuse angle over an advancing Michel Vorm.

Though United still have the same passing and possession problems in midfield that will clearly be tested next Monday against Chelsea, there was much to cheer about in the team’s level of commitment and effort. Atypically, Patrice Evra, whose legs are now more or less gone, still showed his usual penchant for tackling and getting into the opponent’s box that will surely make Davie Moyes ponder deeply before selling him. With some wicked fixtures upcoming against Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City, United’s squad will definitely show what it is made of over the next month, one way or another. This was an excellent start!

Van Persie only needed just six minutes to cheer the crowd with a beautifully taken header off a beautifully directed pass from Patrice Evra that left Wigan’s goalie Scott Carson, only just back in the Premier League from two seasons away in Turkey, clawing at empty air.

After so much riveting action in the first few moments, the game went awry. It was a stodgy performance at times from United and, after such an encouraging start, probably a surprise to Moyes, too. Michael Carrick was his usual elegant self, but the pass-and-move coupling of Welbeck and Giggs did not work. United have definitely missed the tempo supplied by Kagawa(or Rooney) behind whoever has been picked as the main striker thus far this season. Giggs, now into his 24th season, often looked like a Lost Boy, his aging legs not so much unequal to the task, but, rather, unable to work up any kind of understanding with an immature Welbeck, who can’t seem to get past his own on-field issues. With an aimless, sloppy Tom Cleverley giving the ball away repeatedly, all of United’s exploration and finesse fell to Evra, the fleet-footed Zaha, and, later, Januzaj.

Tenacious at least, Wigan had a new Scottish manager of their own and a mostly different line-up from a year ago. Wigan were even gifted a couple of clear chances thanks to the shockingly lax largesse of Chris Smalling and Phil Jones. Unfortunately, neither James McClean nor Emmerson Boyce, each left holding the ball, alone and unmarked, could get it together enough to attempt a proper shot on David De Gea’s goal.
The most rambunctious moments of the day involved a running handbag war between the large, testy Grant Holt and Nemanja Vidic. With the referee Mark Clattenburg clearly feeling benevolent and philanthropical after a few months off the job, Vidic got some payback for the series of cheap-shot elbows Holt thrust into the faces of Smalling, Jones and Evra. Holt may just be exactly what the Latics need to stay hungry in the Championship, but one can’t help be amazed that he didn’t land himself in more trouble during his sojourn in the Premier League with Norwich City.

The second half was more of the same as the first. What we call the Salford Grind. Finally, after much frustration for United, Evra, clearly trying to prove himself and prevent Moyes’ flirtation with Leighton Baines at Everton from being consummated, was involved in the second goal also. The Frenchman picked up the ball after Cleverley and Welbeck worked the ball down field and Evra, stranded far away from his allotted left back position, screened the ball for Van Persie. The ever ruthless striker hovered up the ball, pirouetted like thetre was radar in his head and let loose an awkward shot. The ball whizzed up at an awkward angle and it was unfortunate for Wigan that the ball bounced off James Perch, fooled a wrong-footed Carson and flew into the net.

That was all she wrote save for a number of failed stutters from both sides.The bad news of the day was a hamstring injury for Rafael Da Silva, who was only on the pitch for fifteen minutes before Chris Smalling was brought on and Phil Jones switched from centre-half to right-back. Unfortunately, he could be out for five weeks. Wilfried Zaha was also limping as he left the pitch in the second half after yet another short-lived Jeyll and Hyde performance. Zaha is shaping into something equal-parts awkward and brilliant. Always chasing the ball, he was aggressive, flash and repeatedly willing to take on men and use flicks and tricks to fool hos often much wiser opponents. Brilliant and frustrating in equal parts, be forewarned that he is bound to make dire mistakes in tandem with moments of utter sublimeness.

With the Community Shield now won, done and dusted, Moyes has now won the second trophy of his career after winning Division 1 with Preston North End in 1998-99. Nothing for it this week but training and tactics before next Sunday’s crucial starting match with Swansea City and–fingers crossed!–a wit bit of shopping.