P: Watford 1 - 2 United
PREVIEW: UNITED vs. WATFORD
A trip to Watford should hold few terrors for a United side buoyed by two victories and eight goals in the opening week of the season
Sir Alex team has hit top form whilst rivals have stumbled. Especially pleasing were the variety of tactics displayed and Sir Alex’s effective use of substitutions and squad members.
The open expansive play on view in the triumph over Fulham was vintage United. This gave way to an initially cagey, counter punching style against a spirited but limited Charlton side without affecting the outcome of the match.
The noble knight has become something of an inveterate tinkerer in recent years but over the second half of last season seemed to have recognised the benefits of sticking to his best 11 for every game. Harsh suspensions forced him into changes for the Charlton game but United’s rhythm and goal power were not unduly affected. Giggs, Saha, Rooney, Scholes, Fletcher, Ferdinand, Brown have earned rave reviews, with the reborn Patrice Evra and the determined Cristiano Ronaldo also worthy of praise. This augurs well for the future.
Despite the immediate success, excellent individual performances and six point return, Sir Alex is not getting too carried away.
‘We have the advantage of Chelsea losing (2-1 at Middlesbrough) but after just two games you can’t talk about winning the league.
‘There is no doubt, though, that we have the will to do it and the players to do it and, without question, the spirit in the camp to do it.’
It is the evident commitment of United’s players that has underpinned the great start to the season. United have started quickest of all the teams expected to be in contention for the title. Greater tests of the team’s resolve and staying power arrive next month when United entertain both Arsenal and Spurs.
But for now, so far so good. United’s dream start and in particular the team’s hot scoring streak have removed some of the doubts that dogged the club following the sale of Ruud Van Nistelrooy.
Read: A View From The Other Side
PREMIERSHIP RESULTS:
Charlton 2-0 Bolton / Fulham 1-0 Sheff Utd / Liverpool 2-1 West Ham / Man City 1-0 Arsenal / Tottenham 0-2 Everton / Wigan 1-0 Reading / Aston Villa 2-0 Newcastle / Blackburn 0-2 Chelsea / Middlesborough 0-4 Portsmouth
RESULT: Watford 1 - 2 United Francis (34) / Silvestre (12); Giggs (52)
MATCH REPORT
The Telegraph…Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson will not normally countenance any talk about the Premiership title until the Christmas decorations are up. But perhaps emboldened by Chelsea’s slip-up in midweek and his own team’s impressive start, he has set the hare running early, happily hyping up their chances.
However, on this performance, their least impressive of the opening week, it is difficult to judge whether Ferguson’s disarming smile is a sign that he really believes United are good enough to overhaul Chelsea or is, in football parlance, simply having a laugh. At times United were almost imperious against Premiership newcomers Watford, but they also showed old defensive frailties and for brief periods, when the Hornets buzzed frantically around their goal, looked positively panic stricken.
Equally, it is not easy to gauge whether Watford are headed straight back to the Championship or set for a season of improbable survival. They displayed all the energy and enthusiasm of the newly promoted but also the naivety that tends to go with it.
For much of the second half their manager, Adrian Boothroyd, took up residency in his technical area, clutching a sheaf of rolled up papers as if ready to make his players sit a written Premiership exam after the final whistle. It could not have been any harder than the practical they were put through here.
Boothroyd said: “That was our worst performance so far, though that’s encouraging in a sick kind of way because there is so much more to come. Now we’ve got to reflect on this and decide whether we want to be a force in this league or lie down.”
Ferguson, after two seasons of pointless pursuit of Chelsea, will be delighted to sit at the head of the table, six points ahead of them this morning, albeit having played a game more. And he will be pleased finally to have put £18 million signing Michael Carrick, who surrendered to tiredness in the 74th minute, on the starting grid, and to have the suspended Wayne Rooney and Paul Scholes available after one more game. Only the news that Rio Ferdinand had a suspected broken toe after stubbing his foot near the end has clouded the immediate future for Ferguson.
For England it may mean Ferdinand missing the Euro 2008 qualifying matches against Andorra on Saturday and Macedonia the following Wednesday. He will have a scan today and Ferguson said he did not expect him to be available for international duty.
England nemesis Cristiano Ronaldo, meanwhile, appears to be thriving on the notoriety he has gained for his supposed role in Rooney’s sending off at the World Cup. Rather than allowing himself to be intimidated by the jeers, he appears to be drawing succour from them, displaying a new maturity in his game.
No longer is he just a man of endless flashy stepovers on the right wing, he drifts inside to link up the play and offer a more creative presence. The booing also seems to have cured him of most of his diving tendencies, though Gavin Mahon was unhappy when booked for a foul on Ronaldo just before half-time.
Goals have seldom been a rare currency for Manchester United and eight had come in their opening two games. The ninth arrived after only a dozen minutes here, Ryan Giggs slipping a ball through to Louis Saha, who laid it into the path of Mikael Silvestre.
United had such easy control of the game that before the half-hour was up Boothroyd had taken off Hameur Bouazza and replaced him with Matthew Spring. Four minutes later Damien Francis equalised when no United defender challenged him for Ashley Young’s cross.
Watford’s life president, Sir Elton John, wrote in his programme notes that it was hard to believe that his club were back in the Premiership, a sentiment with which most returning visitors would concur. This was like stepping back into the Eighties, with the Vicarage Road ground lovingly preserved, or more ramshackle than ever, depending on your viewpoint, and Watford still playing the same sort of long- ball football that earned such success for Graham Taylor.
They were, however, the architects of their own downfall when they fell behind again early in the second half. Spring’s back-pass set the covering Daniel Shittu on a collision course with goalkeeper Richard Lee, allowing Giggs to waltz around them and chip into an empty net.
After three matches, Watford have only a point to show for their efforts, though it might be one more than some of their fans would have expected, seeing that Everton and West Ham were their other opponents. With Bolton next up, it is not going to get any easier.
TEAM
United: Van der Sar; Brown; Silvestre; R Ferdinand; J O’Shea; Ronaldo; Fletcher; Carrick (Richardson 75); Giggs; Saha; Solskjaer (Park 59)
Subs: Kuszczak; Evra; Rossi
POST SCRIPT
Sir Alex: ‘The way they make it a box-to-box game it’s difficult maybe to get the rhythm, but nontheless I thought we should have done better.On the counter attack we needed to be better in possession of the ball. We’re good at that and it deserted us. We needed someone to put their foot on the ball and enjoy passing it, and I don’t think they did today.
‘It’s a good result and I think they’re all aware of that. I can sense in the dressing room that they realise they’ve had to battle to get the points.
Aidy Boothroyd: ‘We didn’t play anywhere near well enough today. I know all my players can and will give so much more. I listen to managers saying ‘I can’t ask for more’ but I do ask for more and I want more and I’ll get more because they’re fantastic players.Being average and losing to Manchester United doesn’t interest me.’
