The Dean

........... nothing less, to watch Manchester United in action against Arsenal.

Difficult to pin down exactly what was so good about them, and why, but Ferguson clearly has assembled (in a very short time) a bunch of young players that look like providing Old Trafford's next Golden Generation.

Fergie is also very shrewd when it comes to sending players out on loan - Welbeck and Cleverley now have prior Premiership experience and it shows. Buying Jones and Young was a sensible piece of business, Smalling looks the real deal, plus his foreign imports........... good grief.

And watching Cleverley jogs the memory loud and clear - clearly the next Scholes (he even runs like him) - if he doesn't anchor the England midfield for the next ten years, something will have gone very wrong indeed.

And a mind-boggling thought: if they can score eight against an admittedly weakened Arsenal side, what might they do to a Fulham or a Blackburn?

scrubbedexpat141

I loved watching that game. The young English players looked very good, composed and confident.

Just worried that the likes of Smalling, Jones and Cleverley will be made to look completely amateur in Europe. We'll see.

littlejimmy

Man U looked very good, but Arsenal were terrible and just fell apart.

The Dean

Cleverley is ready for the best that Europe can throw at him. The other two will get there, but maybe not quite yet. They're all in the England squad anyway......... Bulgaria (A) and Wales (H) hopefully won't trouble them unduly........

scrubbedexpat141

I'd love to agree but those three (plus Welbeck who I forgot to mention) would be statues against Barca.

Even against other clubs, Jones marking Ronaldo or Higuain, or Cleverley facing Sneijder, Alonso, Iniesta, Xavi et al would just be one way traffic.

I sincerely hope I'm wrong and perhaps in 18-24 months time they'll be the perfect players to combat the examples above.

The Dean

Yeah but Cleverley has just turned 22 - he'll be fine.

Someone was making the point on the radio earlier that, considering Man City were away (unlike Utd) and were playing opposition who were actually playing quite well (unlike Arsenal), City's performance was actually a more impressive result.

Discuss.

simcalreet

On the basis of the opening few games, looks like it could be the battle of manchester for the title this year...

scot-ish

yeh, the city game was better to watch. arsenal put up no fight, and looked very poor, they will be lucky to finish in the top 8 this season with the way they are playing.

i dont agree with the battle of manchester though, i think liverpool will be in amongst it come the end of the season, suarez is the best striker in the prem this season. and with the young english talent coming through at liverpool, they wont be a pushover.

The Dean

Agree - Downing was a shrewd signing.

scot-ish

dalglish has made alot of good signings, im just hoping carrol starts a run of form, otherwise he will soon be on the recieving end from the kop.

best signing of the season is Jose Enrique, and it also looks like coates will sign this week, he was there watching the game at the weekend, and he will be another top signing.

littlejimmy

Finally, people outside Middlesbrough are seeing what a good player he is. Has always received bad press until he went to a big club.

The Dean

Talking of bad press............... wait for the stick Jessica Ennis is going to get after throwing the javelin...... er...... not as far as she ought to have done....... so that's another gold gone then..............