Reds Take On Premiership New-Boys
United launch their home Premiership programme this weekend against newly promoted Norwich City in front of the standard size 67,000+ attendance.
Sir Alex Ferguson and his lads will have been champing at the bit to get under way against the Canaries after last Sunday’s 1-0 defeat against Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea.
It was the general opinion after the match at Stamford Bridge that United had more than their fair share of possession but the just couldn’t cut the mustard in front of goal.
Striker Alan Smith worked tirelessly at the sharp end of United’s attack, but like his new teammates he was blessed with little luck in his quest to get the ball past Petr Cech, the new Chelsea ‘keeper.
Chelsea, with four players in the starting line-up making their competitive debut for the club, may have failed to attain the standard their supporters might have been expecting. But with so many ‘strangers in the camp’ it was also a more than satisfactory start to the season. After all, it isn’t every season that you get to beat Manchester United on the opening day of the season.
The result wasn’t what United and their supporters were hoping for but the nature of the defeat left most feeling that it could quite easily have been a different story.
Shorn, for various reasons, of so many top players there was fear that the Reds could come unstuck. Thankfully, that didn’t happen and many United supporters left for home feeling disappointed, but no more than that.
It’s nine years since the Reds capitulated on the opening day – Aston Villa, away, August 1995 “You don’t win anything with kids” – and twelve years since they lost the season’s first home game. That was in the Premiership’s initial season when Everton returned to Goodison Park three points better off than when they departed. That was also the last time United failed to get a point from a campaign’s opening two matches, for they had also lost at Sheffield United a few days earlier.
United will, no doubt, start as overwhelming favourites to gather in their first rewards of the new season, but the Canaries will be flying high following their return to the top class.
The Norfolk club will be under no illusions as to the enormity of the task that awaits them this weekend ( and the rest of the season!) but like all freshly promoted clubs they’ll be determined to enjoy themselves no matter what the future may hold.
It could be that United might be boosted by the early return of Cristiano Ronaldo from the Olympics following Portugal’s elimination from the competition.
His trickery on the wing would certainly give United an added dimension against the sure to be lively Canaries.
United’s tea-time kick-off against Norwich should provide the launch-pad to the latest assault on the Premiership title, but Nigel Worthington’s team will be doing everything in their power to ensure that the Reds don’t have it all their own way.
Report by Cliff Butler.
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