Good afternoon, all you happy people. Still grinning from the weekend's result? Us too. Crazy how all our six wins there in the Premier League era have been by our famous old scoreline. Some things are eternal.

 

Can we start off by saying a win at Old Trafford is a win at Old Trafford. As pointed out in our preview, our record there is abysmal, so we're taking the three points, and nobody is stopping us from being happy about it. If the first thing you did after the game was complain, then sorry, you need to have a proper word with yourself.

 

Did we play well? Far from it. Were we a bit lucky? Yes, yet we have all these Yanited fans with short-term memory loss crying into their Boddingtons about Lady Luck while conveniently forgetting about the injustice of last season's FA Cup tie. I don't think I have ever seen a more fortunate, undeserved win of a game of football in my life. Karma seems to be a giant boot to the nuts after all.​ In saying all that, lucky win, yadda yadda, the first moment of any danger in the second half came about 70 minutes in. We never felt at any point that it was a siege and we were under the cosh.

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Now that's out of the way, and despite it only being matchday one, there were some layers to the result and performance that we want to get into, so let's jump in.

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We'll start with the playing piss poorly part. I cannot remember a game involving us where there was so much head tennis going on. It deserved to be on Centre Court, not Old Trafford. Made for a bizarre spectacle. If I had a quid for every time I shouted "Take a Touch" or "Bring it Down", I would have walked away richer. We were unrecognisable. We are so used to seeing us play out with poise and precision, but Sunday, at times, was anywhere will do chaosball. If we still look like that a month in, then yeah, there's cause for concern, but if you are the type of fan who wets the bed after week one, then feast on the positivity vibes we're sending your way.

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For starters, IT WAS OUR FIRST GAME! Openers are never usually great affairs. They rarely are wow, we look ready type outings. We were the opposite. We looked like we'd overcooked pre-season from medium rare to well done. We looked GASSED! Rice is normally an absolute non-stop whirlwind. He was towing a caravan after the hour mark. Saka hasn't looked anywhere near prime fitness throughout pre-season. Freddie Ljungberg said it took him until the first international break before he had his legs under him. That's 7 games in for context.

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You want some more positive spin? Okay, we got you.

 

Arteta, in his after-match presser, said it's a sign of progress that we've gone there, won, and still aren't happy. He's 100% right. We heard all summer about drawing matches costing us the title. Well, here's one right out the gate that we turned from 1 point into 3. You hear it all the time: teams that fight for the big prizes find a way to win. We did that. We kinda Arteta-styled it. Colossal at the back, nicked a set-piece goal, and fought to the bitter end to preserve the lead. Arteta should be an Italian coach from the 80s. I'm not saying that as a criticism. Remember, under the bad Wenger years, when we were getting battered against the top sides? Under Arteta, we are now 22 unbeaten against the traditional top six. 22!!. We think that's pretty incredible.

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Another thing we'd like to mention is that two teams were playing, right? This was Yanited's home opener. Full of optimism and hope after last season, where they were The Spuds without the trophy. Even though they have a guy in charge who has now reached Paul Jewell at Portsmouth levels of ineptness with losses since taking charge, they always seem to be up for it when we come to town. Their two shiny new toys in Mbeumo and Cunha were a handful and will be all season long. If Sesko bangs for them, then let's see how many teams drop points there. Don't underestimate how difficult getting a win there will be.

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So why so out of sync if we only had two new faces in the starting line-up? Well, the two positions they play are vital cogs in the wheel. Zubimendi is the tempo-setting 6, and Gyokeres is our number 9. That's a big part of the spine of the team. It will take a while for it all to gel, especially the getting used to Arteta's maniacal, at times, precision play.

 

So what of the new faces? We thought Zubimendi came exactly as advertised. Calm and assured in possession, and has terrific awareness defensively. Viktor toiled up top and was fighting a losing battle at times. This was mostly due to a lack of service, but he fought his corner. You could tell he was behind fitness-wise, but we saw enough positive signs to say once he's up to speed, he could be a beast. The one that worried us most was Madueke. A 30-minute cameo of absolute defensive ineptness scared us. We aren't going to pile on him yet, as coming cold into a scrappy game like that would be tough on day one.

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Some big clues as to transfer outgoings could be found on our bench. No Kiwior, No Zinchenko. No Vieira. No Nelson. Fenerbache are forever linked with Zinny, and a return to Italy or Portugal seems to be Kiwior's choices. One notable name that was on our bench was Mr. Kai Havertz. We did call it in the preview that we couldn't see a place for him in the starting eleven, and we were proved right on day one at least. Carragher on MNF thinks he'll play in the big games. Neville disagreed. I don't often side with the Mancunian, but I think he's right. We said it in the preview. Why buy a player to solve a problem, then go back to what wasn't working last season? Makes no sense.

 

Before we go, just a quick note to say that after each game we will have a Man of the Match (image below). If you don't agree, feel free to tell us why and who you would have gone with instead. The comments section is always open.