Posted by Brendan Morris

Ah yes, that magical time is upon us again.  That time that reinvigorates, reignites passions, amps up the highs and the bittersweet lows, gives us a reason to get up early on the weekends and bloody smile while we do it.  That's right, folks, it's the dawn of a fresh Barclays Premier League season, and the start of the Red Devil's campaign for a further record-setting 20th league title.  Rapture my friends, thy name is footy.

Today's season opener for the Reds found us traveling to the Hawthornes to take on West Bromwich Albion.  Managed by Roy Hodgson who quite impressively whipped them into fantastic shape since his mid season arrival last term, the Baggies are also boosted by the recent signing of Shane Long from Reading.  Long is a solid striker who's paid his dues in the Championship and should add a significant and much needed goal threat to the West Brom squad.  Something we'd find out first hand in this game as it turned out.

United put out a strong lineup that was very much based on the success in the Community Shield, including the likes of up and comers Cleverley, Smalling, and Welbeck, and just like in that match the squad shined right from the start.  Our possession was dominant, and we've continued that absolutely gorgeous intricate passing game that gave us the one over on City last week.  The usual suspects, Rooney, Young, and Nani, were leading the charge with this attack and they were wonderfully supported by Cleverley playing a decidedly Scholesy kind of role.  It paid dividends quite quickly when  Ashley Young provided a clever pass to Rooney just inside the box who then, with his back to goal, took a great turn and easily slotted a low roller past WBA keeper Ben Foster in the 13th minute. It was well deserved after our constant early pressure, and particularly satisfying after Welbeck frustratingly missed a sitter right in front of goal very early on.

The brilliant build up and dominance continued, and we should've put the game to bed by about the 25th minute if not for Nani squandering consecutive chances by putting 2 absolutely gloriously plaed balls over the bar.  As much as I hate to say it, it simply seems to be the curse of our sublimely talented Portuguese winger where he's positively brilliant one week and incredibly frustrating the next.  Admittedly he's worked hard to cut down this factor, last season especially, but it still no doubt tends to rear it's ugly head hear and there.  Let's completely destroy the dreaded "N" factor this season Nani! We're all pullin' for ya!!!

Out of the clear blue in the 37th minute it all went a bit pear shaped for a moment when  the previously mentioned Long received the ball outside the box on the far left side, and puts his own low roller past David de Gea.  It seemed to stun our new Spanish keeper quite a bit as he hesitated a second too long before his dive and just missed putting a glove to it.  Now, should he have saved that shot?  Yes, he most probably should have.  I'm not going to say every keeper in the league could have, but Manchester United's number 1 should be getting those every time.  However, I'm not going to string the kid up like many a pundit, including FSC's perennial know nothing blow hard Warren Barton would do (my intense dislike for that man warrants an entire article in and of itself), but I will say that the boy needs to do better, and I have the absolute belief and confidence that he will.  In my opinion he is in the top 5 percentile of the game's keepers in his current form, and given some further top level coaching, strength training, and confidence he could well be the best in the world.  Let's not forget he's all of 20 years old.  The sky's the limit with that one.

The second half delivered more of the same from United, albeit we lost a bit of momentum.  Many chances were created and squandered, and to be fair WBA created their fair share of chances as well.  Rooney in particular seemed a bit off his game, and Danny Welbeck was rightly subbed off in the 65tth minute after having little to no impact on the game. 

Dimitar Berbatov replaced the young Englishman and had a pretty good substitute appearance from a player who, although he is brilliant, is typically not the greatest of substitutes.  He usually needs to start a game to be able to fully wrap his "Berba magic" around it, but he did a fine job of it in the 25 minutes he got.  He never did receive much in the way of service in front of goal, but he was integral in several attack build ups with a mix up of one touch passes and back heels, and he also made the final pass to Ashley Young for what turned out to be the winning goal in the 78th.  Young, after receiving said ball on the far left of the box, he then made a dash forward and put a rocket of a strike from a very tight angle into the net.  The goal, very cruelly I felt, was ruled as an own goal due to a deflection coming off of WBA defender Reid. The ball appeared to be heading for the net anyway, and the defender couldn't have possibly done anything to avoid a ball with so much on it.  It will always be rememberd as Ashley Young's first United goal for me anyway.

Both sides had a few more chances in the closing minutes, but the Red Devils held on for a very much deserved win.  A fantastic start to the season with the 3 points, but they definitely came at a high cost.  Vidic and Rio both suffered injuries, Vida being sidelined for 2 weeks and Rio for 6.  They join Rafael who was already injured with a dislocated shoulder and expected out for 10 weeks.  This, sadly, has shades of the injury crisis of '09-'10 but I'm not nearly as worried.  Evra will return next week, and we've got stellar back-ups in the shapes of Jones and Smalling.  Smalling has been better by the day ever since he joined the club, and Jones looks like an absolutely top drawer signing already.  We're going to be just fine.

Better than fine actually when you consider how formidable and efficient our attacking line has been.  In these last 2 games they almost look an entirely different team from last season, and that's saying something as last season we took the title by 9 points.  It does however lead me to another point.  With this unbelievably fantastic, intricate passing game we are employing in our attack in both the 'Shield and today's match, I feel like we should be putting away a lot more of our chances created by that kind of build up play.  While Rooney is always going to score goals regardless, his deep lying style isn't always (now don't slam me over this, I didn't say never.  Just not always) suited to this kind of play and Welbeck and Chicharito for that matter aren't exactly finesse strikers.  Hmmm....

Fortunately we do have exactly that player! Imagine that! What luck!!  I'll give you a hint, he earned himself the Golden Boot last season tied with Carlos "I'm never bloody happy or grateful anywher and six of my goals were penalties" Tevez, and was quite ridiculously left off the CL final bench in lieu of Michael Owen and 16 or so midfielders who were never going to play anyway.  That's right! You guessed it! Our very own Dimitar Berbatov!!!  Now, I'm not at all interested in sparking the endless and stupid Berbatov debate here.  I myself am a big, big fan of our slick Bulgarian but that's all beside the point.  The point is that one of the man's greatest strengths that I'm pretty sure nobody argues about is his insanely good first touch and otherworldly ability to shake off defenders and score goals using that incredible vision and control in tight spaces.  He's made for this style of attack and I think it's quite strange he's not been used much at all within it.  Yes, yes, I know it's only been 2 games, one of which was essentially meaningless, I'm simply just anxious to see us reap the utmost benefits from this new found attack. 

What I do think is quite a solid possibility this term is a return to a regular rotation of strikers, not unlike the policy that was employed during the '99 treble winning season.  Wayne Rooney, of course, will likely be exempt from such a policy but I think making regular changes between Berba, Hernandez, Owen, and Welbeck/Macheda could be a very successful and positive thing.  I am well aware that most readers and fans are going to scream, yell, and call me crazy for saying that Hernandez should not be an automatic starter for EVERY game, but I just think a rotation policy is particularly effective when you have not only such a wealth of talent, but very different kinds of strike talent.  All action Hernandez, Berba the magician, Owen the old school poacher, and our hot rod youngsters all deserve some ample playing time as they could all fantastically play their respective parts in attaining that 20th title.

Thanks for reading folks, and I greatly look forward to doing so much more for this blog I'm so deeply privileged to write for the greatest footy podcast on the planet.  I've also got a piece brewing on the whole Sneijder will we, won't we, or do we really need him anyway saga so keep an eye out for that in the next couple of days too, though that may well depend on what happens between now and then the way this thing has been going.

Glory Glory