Wigan 0 - 5 Manchester United

At last, after the first two, pretty indifferent performances the new exiting United that we had hoped that we might see this season materialised. The team selected was more like my imagined first eleven than Wednesday with Valencia and Nani on the flanks and Scholes and Fletcher in the middle. I feel a bit sorry for Carrick who didn't play against Birmingham and again missed yesterday. I am pretty sure if he had been picked alongside Fletcher instead of Anderson on Wednesday i am sure he would have had a good game. It seems strange that the man you would have thought was our number one central midfield player has only made one start so far this season especially with Arsenal and Spurs looming large. Then again Scholes and Flecther were superb, Scholes giving one of those performances where you wish he was still in his twenties and Flecther showing that he just seems to get better and better. In fact the way last season ended and with the negative impact his suspension had on our performance in Rome it would be hard not to think he is our chief man in the engine rook now.
The first half may not have seen us score but it saw us start to play football like a proper Manchester United team. Berbatov may not run around like a blue arsed fly like a certain Argentinian but some of the touches and the weight some of those passes is just top notch. The two chances that he helped set up, the pass to Nani that saw the portugese man cross for Fletcher that was blocked on the line and the back flick that should have seen Paul Scholes open the scoring were Cantonaesque.
We were getting a lot more from the wide men than we had seen on Wednesday with Nani once again showing his vastly improved form and consistency over the 90 minutes and at last we got some real glimpses of the Valencia we saw in pre-season and we have been waiting for. Rooney was looking sharp again and with Vidic back in defence alongside Evans the defence had a much more solid feel about it. That's not to say it was one way traffic as Wigan played their part in a good game of football with some good attacks of their own.
When Rooney scored you had the feeling that would be that but Wigan went straight to the other end and almost equalised. But that was where the game as a contest ended as Berbatov, Rooney and Scholes combined to see Berbatov beat the goalie and open his account for the season and how pleased was he. Next up was Rooney to get his second and really kill the game. That was the signal for substitutions to be made and for Owen to come on to replace Rooney. The way the game had gone i suppose we should have then expected him to break his duck. And after fine work from Nani waiting for Owen to make the run to lose his man that is what he did with a fine finish. Nani applied the icing on the kick with an injury time free kick that beat Kirkland all ends up. So at last the season is up and running properly and we have hit some decent form just in time for the games against the north London rivals Arsenal and Spurs.

The match report from the Independent
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/rooney-put-on-strike-to-bring-up-his-century-1776071.html

David Pleat thinks Wigan commited the cardinal sin of giving Scholes too much room
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/aug/24/wigan-athletic-manchester-united-tactics-david-pleat

Bayern Munich make a poor start to the season
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2009/aug/24/mainz-bayern-munich-bundesliga-raphael-honigstein

Anatole Kaletsky paints a bleak picture for the German and Eruopean economic recovery
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/columnists/article6807255.ece

Michael Portillo thinks something sticks the Megrahi release
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/rooney-put-on-strike-to-bring-up-his-century-1776071.html