West Bromich Albion 1-2 Manchester United

The first game and the first three points and with Chelsea drawing earlier in the day, a good start to the season. We were excellent for the first half an hour until De Gea's blunder which saw the home team equaliser seemed to knock the stuffing out of us a bit.
Fergie had said that last weeks second half performance had made picking this weeks team easier and he stuck by those words except for defence where Vidic and Ferdinand started but didn't finish the game. Evra was injured so Fabio started at left back though if i had been picking the team i may have started with the Brazillian anyway. Welbeck partnered Rooney again with Cleverley and Anderson in the centre of the park.
Our away form was almost Uniformally poor last season and the Hawthorns was no exception even if we did come away with the three points. So this was a fair test of whether we are going to improve in that area. The first thirty minutes were promising with West Brom struggling to get near us at times. Young was linking up well with Rooney and Welbeck and Cleverley looked good in midfield. It took just thirteen minutes for United to make their domination count when Rooney and Young Linked up well on the left before Rooney smartly finished the move off with a left foot shot.
We should have gone two up after Rooney and Welbeck exchanged passes to set up Nani but last weeks star of the show fluffed his lines blasting over the bar. We were made to pay when West Brom's new signing Shane Long cut in from the right and hit a speculative shot that De Gea should have dealt with easily but rolled past him. It has to be said one good save apart he had looked a little shaky and thereafter the United defence seemed a little wary of placing their trust in him.
The second half became more of a contest, Roy Hodgson has always organised his teams well and the home team became harder to break down. Losing Ferdinand and then Vidic didn't help much, as well as losing two experienced defenders, Fergie was unable to shake things up in the middle of the park. But the one bright spark of the second half was Ashley Young and with ten minutes to go he produced a great run and cross on the left that took two deflections to hit the back off the net and give us the points. Fortunate perhaps but i thought overall we maybe, just about deserved the points.
It was a toss up for our most impressive performer, take your pick between Rooney and Ashley Young who were both influential throughout. I thought Welbeck was pretty good in the first half but faded out of things after the break. Cleverley played reasonably well, again he wasn't quite as good in the second half though he didn't fade out of things quite as much as Welbeck.
Losing Ferdinand and Vidic is a blow, thoug not that much of a suprise in Ferdinand's case. How many games will he play this season? Vidic will be a big loss though if he is out for any length of time, especially with Tottenham and Arsenal to come. A good start then, though we have come down to earth a bit after last weeks heroics.

A defensive crisis already with Ferdinand, Vidic and Da Silva sidelined. Rafael doesn't seem to have much with injuries or getting injury free runs in the team. At least Evra is supposed to be back for next week.
Alan Hansen says the problem for De Gea is losing the eperience of Vidic and Ferdinand ahead of him and of losing the confidence of his team mates. Fergie conceeded it was a poor goal to concede but told reporters to remember Peter Schmeichel's start to his United career, welcome to England he told him after the game. As Andy Mitten wrote before the game, he has big gloves to fill.

Ian Ladyman is impressed with Wayne Rooney, on his game from game one, what a difference a year makes.

Ha-Joon Chang argues that sound fiscal policy alone will not solve the debt crisis alone because the global financial system has dysfunction at its heart. Jeremy Warner is worried about the prospects for the global economy wondering if anything can douse the economic flames, he argues that we need a global solution, it doesn't look very likely though.
Nouriel Roubini thinks that the present crisis is at least partly vindicating Karl Marx's theory, that capitalism had in it the seeds of its own destruction. Roubini doesn't think we are there yet, but he thinks we could be in the process of repeating Roosevelt's mistake of 1937.
Paul Krugman reveals his dismal thoughts, the administration knows they are focusing on the wrong issues. hoping the public will fail to notice Obama's failure to deal with continuing high unemployment. Is Obama going to go down as the Democrat version of Herbert Hoover?
David Blanchflower is as woried about the state of the global economy and thinks Osborne's claim that Britain is a safe harbour is ludicrous. He thinks future economic events could be worse than that which followed the fall of Lehman brothers. Sean O'Grady explains why Britain is not as safe a harbour as Osborne is boasting.
The Economist's Buttonwood column takes a look at last weeks riots and the cuts yet to come. I have to say that i'm waiting for riots in other parts of the Eurozone and eventually in the US. It may not happen tomorrow and it probably won't follow the British model, but unless the brightest Economists and politicians chart a map out of this zombie economy, i'm sure it's only a matter of time.

Not a great quality clip, but quality music, The Allman brothers band.