On a sunny afternoon in London, new Manchester United Manager, David Moyes, won his first silverware at Manchester United and as a top flight manager. The history books will record a 2-0 win for the Reds thanks to a Van Persie double but that far from tells you the story of the game. Certainly it will never be in danger of going into the history books as one of the greatest but was one of the more important games, a win for Moyes in what was a must win.
Courtesy: BBC
Robin Van Persie scored the opener after six minutes with a superb header which had enough power and precision to beat the Wigan keeper, Scott Carson, who was at full stretch. Interestingly at this point the goal was against the run of play and actually United’s first chance. Although Wigan didn’t do much to ruffle the United feathers or make DeGea nervous at the back either.
When they did get good chances they squandered it by either making the wrong pass or holding too long. James McClean got onto a hopeful ball forward after Smalling had misjudged the bounce. But from an acute angle he drilled the shot across the goal when a softer touch back towards an unmarked Grant Holt could have given Wigan confidence and go into half time on level terms. A few minutes later United were on the ropes again when Watsons free kick was headed back across the goal by Emmerson Boyce. Another ex Norwich player, Leon Barnett, was just fractionally too short from getting his head to the ball as another potential equalizer eluded them.
The second half started at a pedestrian pace with both sides not looking as if they wanted in this game. United of course start the defense of their Premiership trophy next week away to Swansea and will have Champions League aspirations. Wigan, who have already started their season, will play at least 50 more games as they compete in the Europa league this season while trying to bounce straight back into the Premier League. Both managers got this game as a result of their predecessors success last season and probably both would have liked to have done without it.
Just before the hour mark Robin Van Persie struck again, although if the first goal was one of skill, this one was certainly one of luck. Scott Carson looked to have the effort covered with hardly a break of sweat but a deflection off James Perch took it a foot higher and wider of the already committed Carson, 2-0 United.
Giggs showed that he could still compete at the top level with some fine moves and vision of play and when he came off for Anderson he was given a standing ovation. After the second goal the game was just going through the motions and at the final whistle David Moyes shook the hand of his coaching staff and finally RVP most likely as a sign of relief more than anything else.
My assessment of the Scots first competitive game is that he got the result he needed to get. Zaha looked good on the ball, but needs to know when to pass and when to hold the ball. On the negative side Rafael had to go off after 15 minutes with an injury, so Moyes will be hoping that isn’t too serious and he will be back sooner rather than later and what to do if RVP ever gets injured. It is just one game but it did look to me like they were adopting the ’Mr Burley’ approach from the movie ’There’s Only One Jimmy Grimble’. In that the school side has Mr Burleys son and he is always shouting from the sidelines ’give it to Gordon!’ Well today it looked as if ’Give it Robin!’ wasn’t too far away from the tactical instructions.
It is a long season and for certain this Manchester United side will face much tougher tests than this. So far Moyes has silverware and 100% competitive record at Man Utd, played one, won one. However the real test will start next week and not relent until may next year.
