The Devil In Me

Are we playing well enough to beat Arsenal at the moment? A solid victory last week would suggest so, but appearances can be deceptive.

Wigan actually murdered us in the first half at the acronym stadium. Yes, we did score five goals, although I suspect we will not be playing teams who’ve sold us their best player and just changed manager every week. Because we won’t be.

In truth, during the first half we showed less fluency than I showed in my last Swahili speaking test. Nobody was making runs and we were making Wigan look a classy side.

It is good that they show class on the pitch because off it they do not. Stitching people up for £45+ a ticket when United come to town is not on. The swathes of empty seats should work as a lesson for them. What have we learnt from this Mr. Whelan?

Foster looked a million times more assured in goal than at Burnley and even if Wigan were smelling blood in the first hour, he kept them at bay. The more I see of Valencia the more I like him. In the Ecuadorian and Nani I can see genuine wing play from United for the first time in years. That is probably not the last headed Wayne Rooney goal of the season.

This is all good news if you ignore the fact that Arsenal are playing like gods at the moment. I hope the Wigan result acts as a confidence booster because we will need to up our game considerably.

After the Gunners we are playing league leaders Tottenham and the evil empire from across town. The time for tentative introductions is over and the season proper starts now. But not for most of our first choice defence. That basking light is looking a little dimmer right now, back to crossing fingers it is then.

Follow Mark at thedevilinme.co.uk or on Twitter@markjpayne

Photography from Bootload at FlickrComs

Some Ashes jokes for you: Most of them pretty average

Q: What is the main function of the Australia coach?

A:To transport the team from the hotel to the ground.

Q: What do you call an Australian with a champagne bottle in his hand?

A:A waiter.

Q: Who spends the most time on the crease of anyone in the Australian team?

A:The woman who ironed the cricket whites.

Q: Why don’t Aussie fielders need pre-tour travel injections?

A: Because they never catch anything.

Q: What’s the Aussie version of a hat trick?

A: Three runs in three balls.

Q: What do Aussie batsmen and drug addicts have in common?

A:Both spend most of their time wondering where their next score will come from.

Q: What is the most proficient form of footwork displayed by Australian batsmen?

A:The walk back to the pavilion.

Order a bouquet of red roses now. Go home with a box of chocolates and find the slow CD, this was a result for the romantics. Owen Coyle’s purple clad side in their wooden stadium sent United home looking like planks.

One of the best atmosphere’s we’ll experience this season thundered their players along and, in the first half certainly, Burnley played considerably better than United and deserved the result.

Fletcher and Beatty were noticeable threats all evening and were it not for another superb performance from Evra we could have been in deeper trouble. Every pass United made was chased and harried. Bad news when the passing gods are not on your side.

You need to go back forty-one years and eighteen fixtures to find the last time Burnley turned over Manchester United. Back then we had three solid dead ball specialists in Law, Best and Charlton. At Turf Moor today we had Michael Carrick.

Phelan after the match, “he took the ball quickly, I’m sure a lot of others wanted to take it.” Excuse me? Hang on a second. Does that mean to say we don’t have a recognised penalty taker at the moment? I wondered who was on free-kicks on Sunday (Giggs apparently) and now penalties are up for grabs. Maybe we should give one to Foster, or even better, I can jump out of the stand and take one myself.

Jensen saves Carrick’s passback
That seems to be a fairly basic part of the team’s organisation that is not sorted out. At the back, errors are somewhat excusable. It really is a plaster-cast defence at the moment but unlike last year the plate is not being stepped up to. Brown looks very clumsy but I suspect a few more games and they should all find their groove.

Something to take note of this year is there are now nine teams from the local area in the top flight. That’s an awful lot of regional pride up for grabs and United’s is the biggest scalp of all. People talk about the top-4 mini-league but the North-West championship will matter to many.

Well as Burnley acquitted themselves, United really should have been more ready for this. This is a side who frightened the lives out of Spurs, Arsenal and Chelsea last year. They know how to take big teams by surprise. Their game plan wasn’t rocket science, go for it in the first half and protect the lead in the second. We should have enough experience to counter that.

In the second half things improved marginally. We were certainly more dangerous after Valencia came on and Berbatov is just pure class. The man has a first touch from Mount Olympus, it is a joy to behold and when everyone else is on his wavelength great things will come. Owen’s sights are off a bit and at the moment I suspect my garden shed could beat him over a 100m. Usain Bolt he ain’t.

Nonetheless, the league will still be won and lost in January and February and when we have our first choice defence playing we will earn more points. And we will probably need to be earning them against the other top teams. First up is Arsenal. Good thing they aren’t playing brilliantly across the board. Oh wait…

Follow Markjpayne@ twitter or http://blogs.soccernet.com/manchesterunited/

Photography from Max Choong at FlckrComs

So here we are. Not gigantic amounts can be read into who wins these games, neither for the following season’s champions nor for the form of the competing teams. But there is one thing I am interested in seeing from the fixture. What on earth is going to be United’s formation this season?

First name on the team sheet must surely be Ben Foster. With Van Der Sar injured this is a chance he has to take and it vindicates his decision to ignore the clubs who have shown him a bit of leg over the summer. He is a solid goalie but it remains to be seen how comfortable the defenders are with him between the sticks, that could be key.

Three of the back four pick themselves and we will need them to be totemic again this year . Whilst we certainly relied on Ronaldo for goals scored in the last two seasons the defence has also been paramount.

Being tough to beat is going to have to be our strongest quality at the start before all of these new strikers and wingers have been properly introduced. That could take some time, I can hear the crossing of a million fingers as I type this. It might take a few weeks to figure out our best line up and in that case there could be a late transfer at the end of August. This is how we got both Canotona and Yorke, so the precedent is decent.

My best guess is that Rooney and Berbatov will start together up front and that Owen will be brought on sometime during the second half. John Terry will be running around like a thug trying to prove he still loves Chelsea so having Rooney in the centre to bump into him from time to time is necessary.

Much feting will be done of Chelsea’s hallowed ‘midfield diamond’ formation. No doubt Ancelotti’s serie A tactics will be greeted in London like the first shipments of sugar. Fergie knows this and will try to counter it by putting a bit of bruise and a bit of experience in the middle. I expect to see Fletcher and Ryan Giggs(84). He will complement that with two of our widest wide men to try and exploit those wholesome Wembley flanks. Probably Nani and a debut for Valencia.

Follow Mark at http://blogs.soccernet.com/manchesterunited/ and on Twitter @markjpayne

Photography from Twin Peaks @ FlickrComs