Manchester United's Danny Welbeck rose to the occasion impressively against Tottenham. Photograph: Nigel Roddis/Reuters
1The kids are OK
The average age of
Manchester United's starting XI was 23. They had a teenager at centre-half and a 21-year-old at right-back. The man playing instead of Dimitar Berbatov was 21, the goalkeeper was half the age of the guy at the other end and the little fellow in the centre, trying to show that United can get by without Wesley Sneijder or any other superstar midfielder, was a 22-year-old starting his second senior match for the club. The young players acquitted themselves well, sometimes brilliantly. "It has been our way since Sir Matt Busby and his Babes," Sir Alex Ferguson said, and there was another hint from the manager that the club did not feel it necessary to spend any more money. "Don't fret about the transfer market, we have a good nucleus and the squad has time on its side to get better."
2 Luka Modric let Tottenham down by not playing
Harry Redknapp seemed remarkably relaxed about Luka Modric's decision to rule himself out, which was strange because the
Tottenham Hotspur manager was entitled to feel badly let down. His team played well in flashes but there were other moments when they missed Modric's ability to keep the ball, thread in the passes to the forwards and trouble the home defence. Even if Spurs had won, the underlying point is that this was selfishness in the extreme on Modric's part and a failure of his professional requirements. Modric is not the first player to become embroiled in a transfer struggle and declare that he does not feel in the right frame of mind to play, and neither will he be the last, but that doesn't make it OK.
3 Danny Welbeck justifies his place
Wayne Rooney's new strike partner took his time to get into the match and there were moments in the first half when the ball would bounce back off his knee and his passing could be erratic. He looked a little dispirited in those periods but the better strikers tend to be the ones who do not dwell on mistakes or misses and, by the end, Welbeck is entitled to feel he justified his place, not just because of the goal that opened the scoring but what followed next. His attempt to beat Brad Friedel with an overhead kick was audacious enough but there was something truly delightful about the back-heel with which he left Anderson clear to score the second.
4 Spurs need more in attack
The club are trying to sign Emmanuel Adebayor from Manchester City and, while the former Arsenal player can be guaranteed to bring baggage, it is easy to understand why Redknapp is not totally satisfied with his existing forwards. If there was one criticism of Tottenham's performance, it was that they lacked presence in advanced positions and, without Peter Crouch, did not have anyone close enough to David de Gea to unnerve him when balls came into the penalty area. Defoe looked like a player on the wane at times last season and his link-up play with Rafael van der Vaart is not as good as might be expected. Spurs scored five against Hearts in the Europa League last week but they struggled for goals at times last season and may do so again unless another forward is recruited before the transfer window closes.
5 Things go from bad to worse for Berbatov
These are strange times for the man who finished alongside Carlos Tevez as the joint leading scorer in the
Premier League last season but now finds himself as, at best, the fourth-choice striker at his club. For the second week running Ferguson preferred to partner Rooney with Welbeck and this time, when the substitutions were made, it was Javier Hernández who was introduced. The inside of Berbatov's mind is a complex place and one wonders how he is coping with the disappointments that have come his way since Ferguson lost faith in him towards the end of last season. All we can be certain of is that this is not what he would have imagined when Tottenham traded him for £30.75m three years ago and he became the most expensive player in United's history. Can Berbatov regain Ferguson's trust? Of course he can but, equally, there can be no guarantees he will not become even more marginal given that Ferguson has already stated he plans to give Michael Owen, currently injured, more games.
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