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Steve Bruce recalled Nico Vaesen to the starting line-up as expected, and had a novel solution for the 'Do I pick Stern John or Clinton Morrison?' in that he picked both, as well as Christophe Dugarry. The result was a 4-5-1 formation with Dugarry wide on the left, and Morrison on the right, with John up front. The idea of this is that when you have possession, it becomes 4-3-3, whilst when under the kosh, it reverts back to 4-5-1. In the centre of midfield were Robbie Savage, Stephen Clemence and the returning Damien Johnson.
Blues matched their illustrious opponents well in a first half devoid of many clear-cut chances. The home side's work-rate was excellent, but the quality of their forward play not quite matching. David Beckham wasted a couple of free-kicks very much within his firing range, whilst Paul Scholes and Juan Sebastian Veron both conspired to miss one particular opportunity with the ball cannoning back off Vaesen's crossbar.
Blues did create their own first half chances, however, with Morrison glancing a Jeff Kenna cross just wide, before Dugarry had a header from a Clemence corner cleared comfortably off the line by Mikael Silvestre. A Savage cross also caused panic in the United defence, as John and Morrison both narrowly missed out on connecting with the ball before Rio Ferdinand could clear. Come half-time, a 0-0 scoreline was probably a fair reflection of the events thus far.
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United would not be the team that they are if they weren't comfortable with a 1-0 lead. When Blues go 1-0 against anyone, anywhere, they panic and you sense the inevitable equaliser. United, however, just play exactly as they have done, and shut up shop at the back. Consequently they still create chances, whilst the team chasing the game simple can't get anything close to a chance. Again, this is exactly what happened.
United went close again via Scholes and substitute Solskjaer, whilst Blues best opportunities came late on, courtesy of long range efforts from Dugarry and Clemence. A goal would have been no more than Clemence deserved for a superb performance in the middle of the park. No doubt watching Dad, Ray, would have been impressed by his son's combination of aggressive tackling, excellent passing and control and a little bit of pace and trickery to take him away from players. Matthew Upson also had an accomplished home debut, marshalling Van Nistelrooy well - except for once - and with opponents like these, once is all it needs.
Blues can take a lot of heart from a solid enough performance, and if they can work as hard, and possibly increase the threat in front of goal slightly, in the next two home games, they my well pick up something from Chelsea and Liverpool's trips to St Andrews. Defeat was expected, and defeat sure enough was the outcome, but the nature of the defeat would have been pleasing - if that's possible - and the only real downside would come from the winner being a sloppy goal. Had it been a free-flowing United move, or even a Beckham free-kick, then it might have made it slightly easier to swallow than a preventable Van Nistelrooy strike. Credit to United though - they came to do a job, and did it without that much danger to themselves.
PLAYER RATINGS:
Vaesen - Sam Allardyce was in the Main Stand - he must have been thankful that Ian Bennett was in goal on saturday
Kenna - Poorest display in a Blues shirt
Clapham - Handled Beckham fairly well
Upson - Strong and assured
Cunningham - Much better than at the Reebok
Savage - Not as influential as usual, but still chased everything
Clemence - Excellent both defensively and offensively
Johnson - Struggled at times, but quietly effective
Morrison - Worked harder
Dugarry - Not at his best, but possibly not fit... still a joy though
John - Ok
SUBS:
Lazaridis - Quiet
Kirovski - Composed
Devlin - Unable to make impact