Manchester United 1-0 Tottenham Hotspurs - Five Talking Points

Manchester United started the new season with a narrow win over Tottenham Hotspurs at Old Trafford. Kyle Walker’s own goal was the difference between the two sides at the end of 90 minutes.Louis van Gaal had introduced four new faces in his starting lineup for the season opener while Pochettino made some tactical tweaks after suffering an embarrassing drubbing in the same fixture last season. Both the teams were unconvincing but the hosts held their nerves and showed their winning mentality as they ground out a 1-0 win on the opening day.The game was a bit quiet all around apart from a few spells, but there’s a lot of take aways for both teams involved.Here are the five talking points from the match.

#5 Harry Kane\'s misery

Harry Kane entered this season with some reputation attached to his name. After having a fairytale last season, Kane had to start his new season at Old Trafford, which is one of the most difficult places to play for an opposition player.

Well, this time around he didn’t have a fairytale beginning as he was ably managed by the United rear-guard. There are murmurs in England of him being a one season wonder and tonight these critics will be out with full strength bashing the North London lad left, right and centre.

Although his performance wasn’t top class, he wasn’t awful either. It was one of those days where he was carefully isolated by Chris Smalling and Michael Carrick in first half and Schneiderlin replaced Carrick in that duty in second half. He tried drifting outwards to create more space but didn’t have much success there as well.

The young striker may as well not even wear Lilywhites come at the end of August, with potential interest from Manchester United, the odds of that happening just might have got slashed after today.

#4 United new boys have impressive debuts

For the first time in almost 10 years, Manchester United had as many as four debutants on field in their starting XI for the opening day fixture who were not part of their youth academy. Matteo Darmian, Morgan Schneiderlin, Memphis and Sergio Romero made their competitive debuts for Manchester giants, and each and every one of them had a great outing.

Matteo Darmian and Morgan Schneiderlin were the real standouts of this quartet of debutants. Memphis showed flashes of his brilliance and looks set for a good run in his debut campaign at United. If LvG jumps on to 4-3-3, this will benefit Memphis more than anyone else as he will be able to thrive in his favored position on wings. Romero was the pleasant surprise of the afternoon, as he impressed with his shot stopping although he looked a bit shaky with the ball at his feet.

Apart from this quartet, we also saw Bastian Schweinsteiger making his debut against Spurs from the bench. He was given a hero’s welcome as he replaced Michael Carrick at the hour mark. The German midfielder impressed with his all-action approach as he running relentlessly up and down the pitch.

Things look ominous for the rivals of Reds if all their new signings gel in perfectly as the season wears on.

#3 United midfield more convincing

Manchester United’s midfield woes are no secret and a lot has been talked about this for almost half a decade. This summer Louis van Gaal made his priority to bolster his lagging midfield by recruiting Morgan Schneiderlin and Bastian Schweinsteiger. It’s hard to ignore the impact this new signings are going to have as the season wears on.

Today the double pivot of Carrick and Schneiderlin bullied Spurs’ midfield of Bentaleb and Dier. Despite the fact that Carrick was still not at 100% and was sluggish for initial part of his stay, this was commendable. Barring Bentaleb’s erraticness, there were hardly any mistakes committed by the Spurs midfield and yet they were outplayed for major parts of the game, speaks volumes about the efforts of this United midfield.

The double pivot of Schweinsteiger and Schneiderlin was much more effective and dynamic than the Carrick-Schneiderlin combo. This was majorly due to the fact that Schweinsteiger offered the additional thrust in the midfield. Today, the entire United squad looked a bit off pace and yet they performed to the level to keep a robust Spurs midfield at bay, speaks volumes about their efforts and ability.

On paper, United has one of the best midfields in England. Whether they can live up to their expectations remains to be seen.

#2 Surprise of the day

There was a shroud of speculation around the goalkeeper who will start for Manchester United for their opening day fixture after Van Gaal ruled out David De Gea. Both Sam Johnstone and Sergio Romero were tipped to start with none being favoured either by punters or fans. Louis van Gaal chose experience over youth and Sergio Romero started over the young Johnstone.

The Argentine custodian has had a torrid club career for almost two years as he was shunted to bench at his previous club Sampdoria. Although in the meantime he played two major cup finals in World Cup and Copa America; there were still some doubts regarding his pedigree to play for a club like Manchester United.

And we must say he surprised one and all, from fans and pundits alike. He was commanding presence in the penalty box and also impressed with his shot stopping abilities especially in dying minutes of the game which were crucial in ensuring Manchester United make a winning start to the season.

He was a bit nervy when in possession and that is understandable as well. After all he has joined the club late in preseason and has barely got time to gel with his new teammates. And yet he had a debut at Old Trafford, which only a few keepers can boast of.

He was appreciated by one of his fellow defenders and Man of the Match, Chris Smalling as he called him ‘right fit’ for the role. Smalling said, "He looked the part. He came out and commanded his box which is what you want behind you as a defender."

#1 Smalling and Darmian - The right men.

Today’s win can be attributed to two players who were absolutely stunning against Spurs, Matteo Darmian and Chris Smalling. The right hand side of the United back four was absolutely imperious and solid.

They shunted Spurs’ most creative players in Harry Kane and Christian Eriksen, who were coming in with a soaring reputation of their own. Matteo Darmian was absolutely unplayable today as he was everywhere on the pitch be it in defence or making overlapping runs. Chris Smalling on the other hand, suffered from opening blues but soon he too got into his groove as he started to impose himself into the game. Smalling’s handling of Harry Kane and Delle Ali in the latter stages of the game was simply phenomenal.

This rightly made him the man of the match and he also repaid Van Gaal’s faith of starting him despite not clocking up the huge chunk of minutes in the preseason. Matteo Darmian too, was rewarded for his efforts as he was adjudged the Fans’ man of the match.

This might be too soon to make such comparisons, but not since the days of the Gary Neville-Rio Ferdinand axis, has United had such a strong right-hand side of a back four. If this pair clicks as the season progresses, Manchester United will surely have a formidable defence to take their opposition on.