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| The Reds Win Will Inspire Winning Mentality |
Unless you're a delusional bitter Blue, nobody could deny that United were the best team and definitely worthy of winning their record 19th Community Shield title - but really the most impressive thing today was that it was a total team performance.
It's still way too early to determine whether this win could determine how successful United will be or not. But one thing is for certain, Sir Alex Ferguson has a very capable, strong squad of players to choose from.
Youth
After watching City painfully score two suspect goals against pretty much our first-choice back-line, it was a welcomed relief to see a youth begin to dominate their City counterparts as the game wore on.
During one of his press conferences on the Tour 2011, Sir Alex claimed that he has three of the best center-backs in the country with Chris Smalling, Phil Jones and Jonny Evans. A lot of people were scratching their heads seeing Evans being grouped with the other two, but in the curtain raiser of the season against City all three of them impressed everyone, equally.
Some United fans were speaking out against having Smalling deployed at right-back, especially with Rafael, who is clearly the first choice since the club has had a mass exodus of defenders at that position, on the bench. However, all the natural center-back did was make great runs down the wing and he combine ever so well with Nani to terrorize Kolarov and his eventual replacement, Gael Clichy.
When Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic were replaced at halftime, most people would have thought that Smalling would have been shifted into the center of United's defense, but that was not the case and Evans and Jones did one heck of a job showing the elders how to keep out Dzeko and the other City attackers from having a sight at David de Gea's goal.
Support
As everyone knows by now, the young United goalkeeper did not have very good first half, but he atoned for his very correctable errors with two very good reactionary saves in the second. The 20-year old will experience some growing pains along the way, but do not expect Ferguson to have a knee-jerk reaction and replace him after a couple of miscues.
Being introduced into a foreign league at such a young age, de Gea will need some time to settle in and us United supporters need to get behind him so he learns from his mistakes.
Focus
Ahead of the match, there were a couple of players, who were always going to have their performances examined under microscope - and each of them came through with flying colors. Danny Welbeck, Anderson, Tom Cleverley and Nani all had a chance to prove how influential they can be this coming season - and each of them had shouts for Man of the Match honors, as well.
Welbeck was handed a somewhat surprising start ahead of luckless Dimitar Berbatov, but he put in a very determined, enthusiastic display, which will see him heap pressure on everyone else. The 20-year old has just returned from a season-long loan at Sunderland and with that experience Danny looks to be ready to take a leading role.
Anderson, who has been very hit and miss since joining the club a few seasons ago, now has the chance to stake claim on a center midfield role for the club. Against City, the Brazilian continued his form from the last month of the previous season, and added some flair and energy, to boot. His best move of the day was not his shoving match with Dzeko, but a clever flick over the head of Yaya Toure, which made the former Barcelona man look awful silly.
Cleverley came on at halftime for Michael Carrick, who was ruled out through injury and he buzzed around the field like the man he has been said to be replacing. Everyone wanted to see how he would cope against a formidable City midfield and Paul Scholes, himself, would have been proud of the performance Tom put in. He did not score a goal, but his constant move in and around the opponent's penalty area is exactly what the club needs - and will prevent them spending oodles of money on an outsider.
What can be said about Nani's performance that probably has not already been said? Not much, to be honest. The United winger looked like he was wound up and raring to go. What was most impressive is that he put in a typical Ji-Sung Park performance by running at the same pace from the beginning of the game as he did at the end. And yet, he still had the composure at the end of his runs to finish them off with style and class. With the purchase of Ashley Young, who also impressed in his first competitive match for United, and the reemergence of Antonio Valencia, Nani looked to be the odd man out. However, if he continues to play like this throughout the entire season, do not be surprised to see him pick another Players' Player of the Season Award.
This competition has been often seen as a pre-season tune-up for the Champions of England, but Manchester United could use this performance and Manchester City to their advantage as they strive toward No. 20.
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