Highlights: Everton 1-0 Manchester United (English Premier League - 20/08/12)

We look very shaky in defence tonight. Vidic clearly isn't match fit and Carrick isn't strong enough to play there, which was there for all to see when Fellaini out-muscled him for the goal. Rooney and Nani were also poor by their standards, Kagawa looked sharp though and De Gea saved us a few times in the first half. All in all not a great performance, half the team looked like they were still on holiday.

This is also pretty embarrassing:

http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.n...

everton fully deserved the win probably could have been more but for de gea. fellaini was unplayable couldnt get near him he'll dominate most defenders let alone carrick.

but yet again we get sliced open too easy, same old story from last season and when we have the ball its too predictable and easy to defend against, all teams have to do is defend deep against us.

one good thing to come out of the game was kagawa, he was a class apart from any united player.

ANDESRON lol

guess he shows up when he wants too...

As for more important things, Fellaini was an absolute BEAST today. Good Lord! That was one of the most perfect performances from a midfielder I've seen in a VERY long time. If my memory serves me correctly, he recently signed a contract extension with Everton as well, so any possible suitors for the January/summer transfer windows will have to pay a hefty sum to get him.

DeGea also deserves special mention. He seemed like the only player for Utd. who gave a damn about playing today.

Ugly opening display by United. From the very beginning we never really got going. Besides Kagawa and Cleverly, the midfield was pitiful with horrible crosses and mistakes by Nani and Scholes didn't really push forward too much. Way too much check passing with no real progress from almost everyone. Everton totally deserved the victory and we had no answer for Fellaini with defensive marking as Carrick was getting manhandled and even Vidic is not back to full strength. We really missed Rio in this match.

Not a whole lot up front either as Rooney made countless mistakes and Welbeck was his usual clumsy self. I'm a bit surprised RVP didn't start or gets subbed in at the half as we barely even had a shot on goal at that point.

Bad result but I'm not too concerned for our Red Devils just yet. I'm used to seeing us start out the season quite rotten so we'll just have to settling into the new season. And the reds go marching on!

De Gae - Great start to the season for the lad. Every shot Everton brought at him was stopped minus the 2 shots off the bar but those would've been unstoppable had they gone in.

Evra - Made some great runs on the left sidelines and looked to have more pace than I usually give him credit for. Poor crossing and the Everton defenders got the best of him on attack as they managed to get a lot of goal kicks off of his crossing attempts. He played fairly well defensively.

Vidic - Not really the old Vidic I know and love but it takes some time to come back from injury. Besides getting outclassed by Fellaini, he seemed quite confident in the center and he even came up for attacking play.

Carrick - He was miserable in defense. There weren't too many others on the roster who would've done any better though. Fellaini just owned him (and the rest of the defense) since the starting whistle and he eventually made us pay on that corner.

Valencia - His display on defense wasn't bad but it's so disappointing that we wasn't playing right midfield where he can really make the other squad suffer. We really missed him making the runs down the sidelines but his crossing in this particular match was disappointing.

Scholes - Didn't really make much of an impact in the match. Had a few opportunities to shoot and instead played a bit too conservatively. His passing was on target but he made some reckless challenges and may have been lucky not to have seen red.

Kagawa - Him and De Gae were probably the best on the pitch for united. His ball control and forward passing was impressive and he had a nice opportunity to score but just came up short. Looking forward to seeing him in the upcoming fixtures.

Cleverly - He looked real comfortable in a midfield and was a workhorse up and down the pitch. He was clumsy with the ball at times, giving up possession but was right back at it chasing the ball down. Should've slotted home the equalizer but Jagielka made a nice block on the goal line.

Nani - Poor from the opening minute as he picked up a booking right off the bat. He just couldn't get going, especially with his extremely poor crosses and corners.

Welbeck - Really couldn't get much going. His movement, possession and passing were quite well but he didn't get a shot onto Howard or really create too much.

Rooney - A pretty disastrous return to Goodison. He had a good chance on a turnaround shot but it was right at Howard. Distin did a great job on frustrating him in the center.

subs:

Van Persie - A tough debut from the Dutchman. Already down a goal and Everton parking the bus to hold on to the lead, he really didn't get much service. He made a nice cross to Kagawa but he was inches away from tying it up. Hopefully we'll see him start the next fixture.

Young - Didn;t really make much a contribution after coming on for Nani. A few bad crosses but nothing really noticeable.

Anderson - Energetic after coming on in the last few minutes on the match. Tried a shot but it was off the mark.

I haven't got a blame game tbh first game of the season it was a hard game. Everton was class tbh we will have a better squad overall as the season progresses. We are never without an interesting season at Old Trafford.

Everton deserve there win 100%. Got to see some off what Kagawa has to offer and im impressed. We will stregthen as the season goes on and im sure we will be on the running for another exciting season so thats all im interested in. GG Everton.

man utd always struggle on their opening game. However, everton played great and they deserved to win. glad utd couldn't do anythong especially with the extra fergie time minutes.

Everton deserved to win….
Fellaini Bossed the whole game. united were disgraceful to much passing from side to side, did rooney even turn up??. Kagawa and De Gea were the only two that looked like they were up for it.

1st game of the season against a good Everton, at home and u children are already saying Man U have lost the title, how pathetic. grow up.

RVP played 20 mins, and didn't play badly.. he was signed last week!

I really like Everton as a team.. good support, fantastic management.. great start!

i bet alot of people lost some serious money at the bookies yesturday.

Rooney was TERRIBLE! why was he playing for 90 minutes? he made so much mistakes

Man of the match should have been De Gea, yes fellaini was good but it could have ended 4-1 if De Gea wasnt amazing. Rooney and Kagawa also played superbly.
Distan was also superb

LOL guess when United lose it's a party over here. But yea the season just started, not a good start but look at a league table RIGHT NOW and tell me what you think is predictable about it.

Rooney is past his sbd.

Im still not convinced about van persie i think that 24 mil should of been used elsewhere probably on a good central defender and holding midfielder. Hope Alexander Büttner can help with the problems at back.