Report: Manchester United 3 – 0 Newcastle United

Manchester United got their season off to a flier with a dominating win over newly promoted Newcastle United at Old Trafford.

The home fans were treated to a masterful performance from midfield maestro Paul Scholes as he rolled back the years to give the Magpies a footballing lesson.

Dimitar Berbatov opened the scoring for United, before Darren Fletcher doubled the lead just before half time. Second half substitute Ryan Giggs rounded off the scoring with a controlled volley after a brilliant chipped pass from Scholes.

Newcastle had their best chance of the game in the early exchanges after Andy Carroll’s clever run deceived Nemanja Vidic from a corner, but the giant striker headed wide of Edwin van der Sar’s post.

United quickly started to dominate possession and it was pretty much one way traffic from 20 minutes in.

Scholes picked up where he left off from last weekends man of the match performance against Chelsea and was again pulling the strings in United’s midfield.

The opening goal came after good tracking back from Antonio Valencia won the ball back inside Newcastle’s half. Darren Fletcher picked up the ball and threaded a pass through to Dimitar Berbatov who finished well from a tightening angle.

Nani was also in good form, with much of United’s attacking play coming from the left flank. It was his clever pass that sent Patrice Evra to the touchline to fire a cross into the six yard box where Wayne Rooney was able to touch the ball into Fletcher’s path. The Scot turned and shot low past the helpless Steve Harper to double United’s lead going into half time.

From then on it wasn’t a question of if United were going to win, it was just a matter of how many goals they were going to score in the process. As it happened, one more was all they could muster, but the scoreline flattered Newcastle and didn’t truly reflect United’s complete dominance of the match.

It was a combination of United’s old guard that sealed the win. Scholes the architect, Giggs the finisher, as has so often been the case over the years showed that there’s life in the old dogs yet.

Dimitar Berbatov could have scored a hat full of goals tonight, and while his finishing was poor at times, Sir Alex Ferguson will be pleased that the Bulgarian striker is at least finding himself in goalscoring positions. It really could be a make or break season for him.

It may not have been a scoreline that matched Chelsea’s 6-0 win over West Brom at the weekend, but the performance was just as commanding and will act as a sign of intent from the deposed champions that they’ll be right up there at the top once again, looking to lift the Premiership trophy for a record 19th time.

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