West Brom 1 - 2 UNITED

West Brom 1 - 2 UNITED

 Rooney 13, Long 37, Reid (og) 81
 

United are up and running on the opening day of the season with a 2-1 win away to West Brom and no one will be more relieved than David De Gea as the young Spaniard once again came under the spotlight for a softly conceded goal. United fielded an almost identical team that performed so impressively in the second half vs Manchester City in the Community shield with the exceptions of Ferdinand, Vidic and Fabio starting. Infact the team Sir Alex Ferguson started with was the youngest lineup of any team in the premier league this weekend.

United got off to a bright start, as West Brom were unable to cope with the movement and one touch passing  of United's front four. Young particularly looked hungry and it was his pass that led to United's opening goal,  picking up the ball up on the left wing, he cut inside, threatened to cross but instead laid on a pass to Wayne Rooney on the edge of West Brom's penalty box who was allowed to take a touch and shot low across Ben Foster's. United continued to threaten, and looked dangerous on the break with the pace of Nani but failed to capitalise and add to their lead as the Portuguese international spurned two good chances. As it was West Brom grew into the game and were beginning to threaten De Gea, the Spaniard forced to make a save but continued to look uneasy from set piece deliveries. West Brom then equalised as Shane Long shot from just  inside the area from the left hand side and De Gea was unable to get down quickly enough.

Going into the second half there were a few wondering if United's terrible away form would be a regular feature this season as well and things were not made easier as Jonny Evans was brought on to replace Nemanja Vidic, the big Serb picked up a knock in the first half and continued to look uncomfortable, he is excpected to be out for a further two weeks. Looking to his bench for options to shake up the attacking side of things, Sir Alex was unable to call upon the services of Javier Hernandez, United's sharp shooting Mexican still sidelined with a concussion, instead it was Dimitar Berbatov last season's joint top scorer served with the task of attempting to win the game for United. Off came Danny Welbeck perhaps a surprise starter, but United still created few in the way of clear cut chances. The defensive side of things got worse again when Rio Ferdinand picked up an injury which left him unable to move and was subsequently substituted for the new highly rated young summer signing from Blackburn Rovers Phil Jones. De Gea meanwhile continued to be bombarded with aerial balls and more than once found himself on the ground after collisions with the West Brom forwards as he found out first hand of the true physical nature of the English game.

With United on the back foot and no winner in sight, it was left to United debutant Young to win the game. Popping up on the left in the 81st minute, he threw a body feint to go on the outside and drill in a cross which took two deflections before eventually being directed in by Steven Reid with Ben Foster only able to watch and sending United's travelling support into pandemonium.

Scholesy18