Manchester United 3-1 Chelsea

With an impressive 3-1 win in yesterday's charity shield against Chelsea. Hopefully my pre-season optimism isn't going to turn out to be misplaced as we got a good work out for the players and gained a deserved win. For all those doomlords who have been moaning about our lack of big name signings this was a good response from Fergie's squad. Of course we are still relying on our golden oldies, Scholes and Giggs who will have to be replaced over the course of the next couple of seasons. But as long as Scholes, especially, is nursed along, he will still deliver the goods for at least another season if not more.
The most impressive aspect of the victory for me was the ability of a 4-4-2 formation, with Scholes in it to boot, to compete with the rent boys midfield. I have a feeling we may see a lot more of a 4-4-2 starting line up than we have for two or three seasons.
Seeing as though Rooney is nowhere near 100%, fitness wise, he put in an excellent first half display capped off with his run and inch perfect pass to set up Valencia for the opening goal. Of course he was found by a superb inch perfect pass from Scholes who showed us the type of service thar Rooney was starved off in South Africa. And that was one of any number of beautiful passes for us aficianodo's of the ginger prince.
Rooney's performance was all the more impressive because it has to be said that Owen had one of those games where he may as well not have been on the pitch. Carrick was a surprise starter and whilst not anywhere near back to his best, it was a damn sight better than the performance's we saw towards the end of last season. Valencia again looked the part and if he can improve on his first season, which there is no reason to doubt he will, he is going to become some player.
The second half saw Hernandez and Berbatov come on up front and Nani come on for Park. I had said in one of my summer blogs that it would be perfect for us if those two struck up a good understanding as that would mean that Rooney could be rested more for the bigger games where Fergie plays 4-3-3 with Rooney up top on his own. Well it is certainly looking like they have already gelled and if they can give Chelsea problems like they did yesterday it might be more than the lesser teams they start against. Both of their goals were super moves if Hernandez's finish had more than a touch of fortune about. It was just the start we would have wanted for him though, no waiting for that first goal. It wouldn't surprise me to see Berbatov and Hernandez start against Newcastle next week.
At the back Fabio had a reasonable game and Vidic and Evans paired up well. Smalling looked a bit shaky when he came on, as i expected, i think this will be a learning season for him. Van Der Sar had a couple of wobbles but in the main showed why replacing him is going to be as hard as replacing Scholes and Giggs. All in all though it was a perfect curtain raiser for us.
Ian Herbert wonders whether Valencia will gardute from the list of good United players to the list of greats.
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/slowburner-valencia-shows-signs-of-joining-united-greats-2047210.html

Fergie was happy with Scholes and Berbatov during yesterday's victory over the rent boys.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/8895987.stm

Jim White salutes a Scholes masterclass
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/manutd/7933424/Jim-White-Manchester-United-midfielder-Paul-Scholes-gives-a-masterclass-against-Chelsea.html

Exciting youngster Josh King went out on loan to Preston at the last minute. I really like the look of him, let's hope he gets plenty of minutes on the pitch and starts to fulfill some of that potential.
http://www.lep.co.uk/sport/football/pne_sign_up_manchester_united_player_1_1156024

More cost cutting from the Glazers according to the news of the world. Wouldn't the wiser economy be to drop the basic wage and increase the bonuses. You would of thought that incentivising the staff would be the type of employment practice the gimps would appreciate. It's hard for me to get worked up about this one way or another to be honest. All professional footballers earn too much anyway.
http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/sport/football/901895/UNITED-CUT-BONUSES.html

Evra stiil wants to be a part of les bleus even after his treatment after the world cup
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/international/evra-keen-to-play-for-france-again-despite-sanctions-2047569.html

Jonathan Wilson looks ahead to the tactical trends we can look forward in the coming season and decade after the lessons of Inter's triumph and the partial success of negative tactics in the world cup.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2010/aug/07/football-tactics-premier-league

The real reason for the urgency for the RBS to get a sale of Liverpool was always pretty obvious, it wouldbe bizarre to think that the tax payer part owned it if it comes to that, which it may well do.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/aug/08/liverpool-rbs-takeover

Vince Cable interviewed in the guardian says oppositionis more fun.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/aug/09/vince-cable-liberal-democrat-business

Sean O'Grady worries about incorrect inflation forecasts
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/comment/sean-ogrady-wrong-inflation-forecasts-and-mixed-messages-can-lead-to-dizzying-confusion-2047173.html

Jason Burke writes how Cameron and the west just don't get Pakistan.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/aug/08/jason-burke-pakistan-changes

John Harris describes the chasm that the north south divide is set to become under the coalition.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/aug/08/north-south-divide-soon-become-chasm

Rebecca Front discusses her career in the Telegraph before the start of a new show she stars in on the BEEb written by Simon Amstell
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/7929070/Rebecca-Front-Men-dont-trust-women-to-be-funny.html

British claasical, some Elgar