Everton 0 v 2 Manchester United
Goodison Park, Liverpool
13th August 2005
Manchester United started their season off on the right-foot this season, with a comfortable 2 – 0 win in what could have been a very tricky start to the season. United played their first game away from the media spot-light at Old Trafford (where the Glazers would have guaranteed a fair bit more publicity), at Goodison park, with the Boy-wonder Wayne Rooney returning to his former club.
It was a strong team that faced Everton, with the team almost at full strength but for an injury at the last minute to Ronaldo – a freak ankle knock taken in training – and for the continued rest perio granted to Giggs and Heinze on the left hand side.
O’Shea lined up on the left instead, with Park Ji Sung also promoted to a first-team spot on his Premiership debut, whilst Fletcher joined Keane and Scholes in the centre.
Everton’s game-plan was typically ‘get as many behind the ball as possible’, and whilst last season it was exactly the type of game-plan United struggled against, this time the boys in Red were too much for them. It took until the end of the first half to grab the first goal, but it was worth the wait for Ruud, who was finally able to put last season to bed. His campaign for the top-scorer position began in earnest, and his quick feet allowed him to knock a fast cross from O’Shea in with the outside of his right foot.
Half-time came and went, as did Phil Neville’s yellow card! Despite facing his former team-mates, he didn’t give his ‘Class of 92’ mates any kind of favours, and was often seen lunging at his brother and poor Scholesy!
The game died almost as soon as the second half began, with a sloppy Joseph Yobo back-pass allowing Rooney to effectively walk through the last-line of defence, and slide the ball past the blameless Nigel Martyn.
With the game in the bag, the pace slowed down, although that didn’t stop United nearly scoring their third, with Gary Neville the unlikely candidate sliding in at the back-post to try to knock the ball in from an acute angle! What a start to the season that would have been!
United were unlucky when Arsenal and Chelsea managed to grab late wins from what should have been draws, but the omens are good for us this time round.
Man Utd: Van der Sar, Neville, Ferdinand, Silvestre, O'Shea, Fletcher (Heinze 72), Keane, Scholes (Smith 81), Park (Richardson 85), Rooney, van Nistelrooy.
