A brilliant Manchester derby in this afternoon’s Community Shield has set the tone for the upcoming season. Roberto Mancini’s side raced ahead in the first forty-five, heading into the interval two-up thanks to a Joleon Lescott header and a speculative long distance strike from Edin Dzeko that seemed to swerve as it flew past David De Gea. At the interval, City, with such a rock-solid defence, looked nailed-on to pick up the silverware, despite their opponent’s dominance in possession.
After the break, the “noisy neighbours” were soon silenced. Goals from Chris Smalling and Nani -following a brilliant passing team move- levelled matters just short of the hour mark as United’s attacking football proved relentless. With only seconds remaining, Nani sped away from the halfway line and capped a wonderful comeback by rounding Joe Hart to coolly slot home the winner.
In Fantasy terms, the game will no doubt spark a Nani bandwagon. The summer purchase of Ashley Young places question mark over the Portuguese winger’s game time in 2011/12 but there seems little doubt that Nani- last season’s top-scoring FPL- player- looks good for a place in United’s starting XI at West Brom next Sunday.
On the left, Ashley Young also looked the part and it’s worth noting he took his fair share of set-pieces; it was his delivery that led to Smalling grabbing United’s first. Young -like Nani- is priced at 10.0 but with Antonio Valencia not yet match fit, is likely to take his good form to the Hawthorns in gameweek 1.
Despite Javier Hernandez being sidelined with concussion, Sir Alex Ferguson opted for Danny Welbeck as a strike partner for Wayne Rooney up front. His performances in tandem with the Mexican have shown Rooney thrives more with a pacy forward ahead of him, and Dimitar Berbatov was resultantly relegated to the bench. If Fergie continues along this line of thinking, the Bulgarian could well be a peripheral figure in 2011/12.
Chris Smalling started the game at right-back, suggesting he may offer cover in positions other than centre-half next season. Phil Jones was also played at right-back in United’s pre-season win over MLS Allstars, suggesting the likes of Rafael will have plenty competition for starts on the flank in 2011/12.
For City, Joleon Lescott carried on the goalscoring form that saw him score two games in his club’s final three league games last season. At 6.5, he’s 0.5 more than Vincent Kompany but his eye for goal may tempt Fantasy managers, particularly with Kolo Toure still serving a suspension.
Given their record of 18 clean sheets last term, City were surprisingly slack in the second half . Gael Clichy, on as a sub for Aleksander Kolarov, hardly covered himself in glory with an indecisiveness on the halfway line that led to United’s winner.
David Silva was the liveliest of City’s attacking players, always buzzing around and looking to pick up possession. Silva’s set-piece led to City’s opener and with a home game against Swansea the final match of game week 1, the Spaniard – priced at 9.5 in FPL- will surely see plenty Fantasy investment.
With so much uncertainty surrounding the availability of Carlos Tevez and with Sergio Aguero sitting out the match due to blistered feet, Fantasy managers were hoping for an impressive performance from the other City forwards on show. Mario Balotelli was never really in the game and priced at 9.0, would be a huge punt ahead of the game against Brendan Rodgers promoted side.
Edin Dzeko, playing as the lone forward, may have found the net but the goal was perhaps more of an error by David De Gea than a piece of clinical finishing. Dzeko, at 8.5, could see plenty investment if Roberto Mancini is unable to call upon the services of either Tevez or Aguero ahead of the game a week on Monday.
A stat more indicative of the nature of this game is each side’s total shots- United had 21 to City’s 8, a fairer reflection of the state of play, rather than the 3-2 scoreline.
