Ferdinand toe injury clouds view from top
Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson will not normally countenance any talk about the Premiership title until the Christmas decorations are up. But perhaps emboldened by Chelsea's slip-up in midweek and his own team's impressive start, he has set the hare running early, happily hyping up their chances.
However, on this performance, their least impressive of the opening week, it is difficult to judge whether Ferguson's disarming smile is a sign that he really believes United are good enough to overhaul Chelsea or is, in football parlance, simply having a laugh. At times United were almost imperious against Premiership newcomers Watford, but they also showed old defensive frailties and for brief periods, when the Hornets buzzed frantically around their goal, looked positively panic stricken.
Equally, it is not easy to gauge whether Watford are headed straight back to the Championship or set for a season of improbable survival. They displayed all the energy and enthusiasm of the newly promoted but also the naivety that tends to go with it.
For much of the second half their manager, Adrian Boothroyd, took up residency in his technical area, clutching a sheaf of rolled up papers as if ready to make his players sit a written Premiership exam after the final whistle. It could not have been any harder than the practical they were put through here. Boothroyd said: "That was our worst performance so far, though that's encouraging in a sick kind of way because there is so much more to come. Now we've got to reflect on this and decide whether we want to be a force in this league or lie down."
The Sunday Telegraph
Giggs proves that United have lost none of their bite
There was a school of thought that the sale of Ruud van Nistelrooy to Real Madrid would leave United toothless. Evidently this has irked the squad the Dutchman left behind sufficiently for most of them to chip in with a response.
Mikael Silvestre and Ryan Giggs were the latest to earn a goal bonus, making it eight different scorers in eight days. Without playing at their best, United did enough to leave Watford trumped. The last team to beat the newly promoted side at Vicarage Road were Millwall, which crystallizes how far Watford have journeyed in recent months. The Hertfordshire men go into the international break with considerable food for thought.
Premiership-quality performances from the likes of Jay DeMerit at the back and Ashley Young in midfield are encouraging. But despite competing brightly in their opening games, Watford have only one point to show for it. Aidy Boothroyd had made a point of stressing how his players were not here to think about swapping shirts with their illustrious opponents, but the occasion was all a bit too much for Richard Lee, the home-grown keeper standing in for United's loanee Ben Foster. The Observer
Giggs on target to sting Hornets
THREE games played, three victories celebrated with a clench of the fist by Sir Alex Ferguson. In his 20th season with United, he is hungry as a lad to retrieve the prominence his club once enjoyed, and seemingly the extra wealth of Chelsea has only exacerbated that hunger in the old Scot.
Yesterday at Vicarage Road, United found newly promoted Watford a real handful and Ferguson was constantly on his feet cajoling, gesticulating, demanding effort to go with their class. They eked out the narrowest of wins, it should have been more, and from the way the team appeared on the pitch five minutes early for the second half the air in their dressing room had been hot.
These are the games that promoted clubs aspire to, and under such a positive and bold manager as Adrian Boothroyd, are not allowed to fear. “Everybody expects them to come here and win,” said Boothroyd. “If we agreed with them we might as well not show up. But I don't, and neither should our players.”
With words like that in their minds, Watford, maintaining a high tempo, a discipline of working for one another and a daring to go at United, soon showed that effort would not be their downfall. The Sunday Times
Watford caught out by Giggs' inside job
Watford's bright young manager, Adrian Boothroyd, has insisted his side are in the Premiership "to make an impact, not a little splash" but although Manchester United felt the full force of their uncompromisingly direct play, the new kids on the block were too loose at the back and not sharp enough in attack to halt their visitors' impressive start to the season.
The Sunday Independent