Manchester United: Every opening day match of the last decade

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For the first time in a long time, Manchester United do not start the season as clear favourites for the title and they only have their own management to blame, with Jose Mourinho likely to come under heavy scrutiny from the board and the United faithful.

Gone are the times when Sir Alex Ferguson’s formidable looking Manchester United would come out and conquer all. The battles would be won in the tunnels itself with the Manchester United team exuding an aura of arrogance, overshadowing the other team and forcing them into questioning their self-belief and existence.




This boiled down to the great manager himself. He presided over everything with an air of superiority and commanded absolute control which eventually trickled down to his sides.

One other aspect about Sir Alex was his fear factor. The dressing room knew what they would have to come up against if they came up short on the pitch. This led his teams to give it their all on the pitch, as if the fear of God had been lit up in them. And opponent teams genuinely feared going to Old Trafford or have them come visiting.

But times change and along came his retirement. His successors couldn’t live up to the exceedingly high standards set by the Scot. David Moyes failed in spectacular fashion to get any kind of output from his forces even though he was recommended by his fellow Scotsman, Sir Alex himself.

After a very brief period with Ryan Giggs as caretaker manager, in came Louis van Gaal. The much-celebrated manager came with a reputation having won the leagues in Holland, Spain and Germany at the top level. The board was probably hoping that he could reinstate the fear factor among the cadres and rebuild Manchester United.




Ultra defensive tactics and a dismal record led to his sacking right after winning the FA Cup for United in 2016. Jose Mourinho came in after having a torrid time at Chelsea, having lost the dressing room there. But has Mourinho taken Manchester United to the glorious levels that the Red Devils’ faithful so crave?

Jose Mourinho must be jittery as he starts a new campaign after two full years in charge without delivering the title. We take a look back at United’s opening day fortunes over the last decade.

2007

Manchester United 0:0 Reading

A frustrating opening day game for Manchester United ended in a goalless draw against Reading who chose to sit back and defend with their manager accepting that they would have been hammered at Old Trafford had they chosen a 4-4-2.

2008

Manchester United 1:1 Newcastle United

Manchester United made an unconvincing start to the defense of their title yet again with a draw against the Magpies at home.




Obafemi Martins scored in the 22nd minute but Darren Fletcher, Scotland’s very own wizard in the midfield, stepped up to score the equalizer in the 24th minute of the game.

2009

Manchester United 1:0 Birmingham City

 

Wayne Rooney scored in the 34th which was the only goal of the game as Old Trafford witnessed a resilient Birmingham City broken down in the first round of their title defense.

Joe Hart used to keep for Birmingham back then and was a favourite among the Blue Noses.

2010

Manchester United 3:0 Newcastle United

 

Manchester United, champions for three consecutive years, wrapped up a comfortable 3-0 win over Newcastle United in their opening game played on a Monday night under lights.

Goals from the Bulgarian striker Dimitar Berbatov, Darren Fletcher and Ryan Giggs left the Red Devils completely satiated.

2011

West Bromwich Albion 1:2 Manchester United

With the van der Sar era over, Manchester United travelled to West Brom with de Gea in goal. The young 20-year-old goalkeeper put in a commendable show.

Manchester United had scored via Wayne Rooney in the 13th minute. The home side pulled one back with Shane Long managing to find the net in the 37th. An own goal from Steve Reid in the 81st handed United the game but Roy Hodson who managed West Brom back then was quoted as saying, “we gave United a good run for their money.”

2012

Everton 1:0 Manchester United

Manchester United had not lost an opening day fixture in 8 years but Marouane Fellaini had other ideas. His header in the 57th minute doomed United to a loss at Goodison Park as Robin van Persie started life as a Red with defeat.

Persie was acquired from Arsenal in the summer for a fee in the region of £24m and would go on to score 26 goals and help them win the title and wrest it back from the blue half of the city, ensuring Sir Alex Ferguson went out on a high.

2013

Swansea City 1:4 Manchester United

David Moyes started his stint as Manchester United manager with a thumping victory at the Welsh club. Robin van Persie and Danny Welbeck both scored a brace while Wilfried Bony scored a consolation goal for the home side.

Welbeck would leave United for Arsenal at the end of the season and van Persie would be sold to Fenerbache the year after that.

2014

Manchester United 1:2 Swansea City

David Moyes was sacked in the business end of the 2013 season with United sitting 7th in the table and failing to qualify for the Champions League. Not only was that unacceptable for a club of Manchester United’s standing but they were 13 points adrift of Arsenal at 4th.

The rot had set in and new manager Louis van Gaal had been signed to reverse the tide. However, a dismal showing on home turf destined LVG to start his stint with Manchester United with a loss.

Captain Wayne Rooney equalized in the 53rd minute after Ki had scored in the 28th but Icelander Gylfi Sigurdsson netted the winner in the 72nd.

2015

Manchester United 1:0 Tottenham Hotspur

A Kyle Walker own goal gifted Machester United a one-nil victory at home in their opening game of the 2015 season.

New signing Memphis Depay, who was brought in from PSV Eindhoven and played close to Wayne Rooney in a double strike partnership, excelled at his role but he was nowhere close to van Persie. The manager put a lot of faith in the young Dutchman but even non-United supporters believe that letting go of van Persie was a mistake.




Harry Kane looked sharp for Tottenham and asked questions of Argentinian goalkeeper Sergio Romero occasionally.

2016

AFC Bournemouth 1:3 Manchester United

Jose Mourinho had arrived at Manchester and made a winning start with a 1-3 victory at Bournemouth who could not be taken lightly as relegation fodder, as they managed to finish 9th in the table that year.

Juan Mata responded to Jose’s faith in him by scoring in the 40th minute. Rooney scored in the 59th and Ibrahimovic added a third in the 64th minute. Smith pulled one back for the home side in the 69th but it was too little, too late.

With Zlatan to be paired alongside Rooney again, a lot was expected from United but Jose Mourinho couldn’t lead them to the title which had eluded them since the departure of Alex Ferguson in 2013.

2017

Manchester United 4:0 West Ham

The second year of Mourinho saw a huge upheaval with the arrival of players that he had worked with before. Serbian Nemanja Matic was brought in from Chelsea and (why Chelsea would sell an excellent CDM to a direct rival that needed to upgrade their midfield is still a mystery) Belgian Romelu Lukaku was signed as the impact striker.




The preseason business resulted in a comfortable 4-0 victory with Slaven Bilic’s side getting hammered at Old Trafford. The goals came from Lukaku (x2) and Frenchmen Anthony Martial and Paul Pogba.

2018

Manchester United vs Leicester City

Mourinho goes into his third season in charge with nothing but a serious attempt at the title to be accepted. However, this is also the time when he tends to lose the dressing room. He lost one back at the Bernabeu with his isolation of Iker Casillas and Sergio Ramos speaking publicly against him.

Jose even managed to lose the Chelsea dressing room after winning the title with the very same players and everyone is questioning whether he will lose the United dressing room with his own inflated ego at work, making scapegoats of players who do not fit his standards.

Not only does he have to manage World Cup winning Paul Pogba who is already joking about leaving United but also has to keep a dressing room together while he makes a bid for the title.

Things are not as easy as it was before with the noisy neighbours on the rise under Pep and the gap between teams in the league getting smaller. Mourinho needs to use that ego to positive effect if he has to churn out formidable teams like Sir Alex did.