Manchester United: Week Two

From what it sounded like, United played well again, against much better competition in the form of Newcastle at St. James Park. Unfortunately, Sportsnet in their infinite wisdom decided that Tottenham-Leeds would be a much more entertaining game and decided to show that instead. The game started early here (7 am) so I could've listened to it on the Internet, but figured I was too tired to turn the computer on and get it.

With the 2-1 win, United remain in first through week two, tied on points with Arsenal and Chelsea, but ahead on goal differential. It was good for United to face a strong team like Newcastle early in the season to show they were up to the challenge, but you could also argue that given their preseason tour where they played Celtic, America, Juventus, and Barcelona they had already faced four good teams, handling them all convincingly.

I did end up watching part of the Chelsea-Leicester matchup, and as much as I hated to see Veron go, hopefully he's much better received at Stamford Bridge. He got a bad deal from the British press for not showing up in domestic games, but they blow everything out of proportion. While I have no doubt that they'll be fine again in the Premiership, I'm doubtful whether their form will allow them the same dominance in the Champions League without Beckham, but especially without Veron. He single handedly controlled the flow of many of their games last season, and cut open defenses constantly with through balls to van Nistlerooy, Giggs, and Scholes.

As important a player Beckham was, Veron was more important to United's success at dictating the pace of the game. I like Beckham, but he's definately not worthy of the amount of press he has gotten over the move to Real in comparison to the relative silence Veron got going from United to Chelsea.

Since I'm supposed to get up in 6 hours for work, I'll leave it at that, but have no doubt that this isn't the last you'll hear from me on this subject.