16th Aug 2009 – KO: 13:30

And so, Fergie’s quest for an unprecedented fourth consecutive League Title starts today (well, technically, it started three years ago, but you know what I mean… I’m trying to build this up… stay with me) as Birmingham come to Old Trafford and it must be said that when Birmingham come to Old Trafford, they go home with nothing but a souvenir from the Gift Shop and a kicked backside.

Despite all the fuss over the departures of Ronaldo and Tevez and the “where will the goals come from” brigade, we have scored 22 in 8 pre-season matches which isn’t bad by any standards (but yes, I am willing to concede that some of the opposition wasn’t exactly top class).

Slightly more worrying than our attacking options are our defensive options going into this game. There was a rumour after last season that Vidic might be leaving for sunnier climes but contrary to popular belief, he is still actually a Manchester United player… he just hasn’t been seen wearing the shirt lately.

He will still be missing for this game, as will Van Der Sar, Rafael and Jonny Evans (probably).

Wes Brown, thankfully, does seem to have recovered from his thigh injury however.

Birmingham have injury problems of their own, especially in defence and that surely won’t help their cause here.

Having watched our title rivals Chelsea, Arsenal and (ahem) Manchester City all get off to winning starts yesterday, the least Fergie will expect from a home fixture, whoever it is against and whoever plays, is three points.

I think we will get them and under normal circumstances, I would be going for a 2-0 win here.

However, with our defensive problems, a Birmingham goal wouldn’t come as a great surprise and as a newly promoted side, Birmingham are bound to want to come out all guns blazing but, all things considered, I don’t think a win by two clear goals is beyond us in this one and that is what I will be going for.

3 Points on Manchester United -1.5 Asian Handicap @ 1.63 with Bet365

Rooney Scored United's Only Goal

There was some bad news just prior to this match as it was announced that Rio Ferdinand would be absent with a thigh strain. Fortunately, Jonny Evans was passed fit but was eventually subbed by Wes Brown.

In the absense of Vidic, John O’Shea deputised in central defence (and did a great job, might I add).

A decimated defense is not the ideal way to be starting the season and it shows how fortunate we are to have good, solid pros such as Brown and O’Shea to call upon.

As for the game itself well there was something depressingly familiar about the story behind this one. Yet another 1-0 scoreline which really should be something far more convincing.

United started off very brightly and Birmingham looked like they would be in a for a long, hard day but time and again, chances went begging for United.

Rooney finally broke the deadlock on 34 minutes when he tapped in the ball after his own headed attempt rebounded off the post.

That should have put United at ease and you would have expected them to exploit gaps as Birmingham would have had to come out more and more.

What happened however is that Birmingham did come out more and more as the minutes ticked by and came closer and closer to an equaliser as they grew in confidence that maybe, just maybe, an unexpected point might be in the offing.

Michael Owen was brought on for Berbatov after 75 minutes and had the absolute best chance of the match. Playing on the shoulder of the last man, he had just had a similar run (correctly) ruled offside, the warning was there for Birmingham but just a few minutes later, Rooney played him clean through.

One on one with the keeper, it was the type of situation we have seen Owen in countless times over the years and the end result is usually the same – the net bulges. This time however, Joe Hart stood firm and saved low to his left as Owen tried to sidefoot it around him.

In the end, it didn’t matter because at the end of the day, the league table shows us as one game played, three points in the bag but this lack of the killer touch in front of goal has plagued us for the last few seasons over and over again and it’s not because we have lost Ronaldo or Tevez, the situation was exactly the same on many occasions when they were here.

The stats say that we had 11 shots on target, 9 shots off target and 10 blocked shots. To get just one goal from that lot is almost unbelievable.

Still, it’s early days and it’s better to be creating the chances and missing them to not be creating them at all and no doubt the importance of getting a win on the table to start the season was the order of the day so job done.