West Bromwich Albion 1 Manchester United 2: match report

6:00PM BST 14 Aug 2011 Comments David de Gea endured a nightmare debut. Manchester United lost both their centre-halves. Yet somehow the champions still managed to start their Premier League title defence with a win. Ashley Young's deflected effort 10 minutes from time ensured United did not follow Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea in failing to win their opening match. Yet on the journey back up the M6, Sir Alex Ferguson's mind will be full of problems. Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand will need to be assessed for the calf and hamstring problems that heralded their second-half departures. And Ferguson will need to find some confidence for De Gea, in addition to a crash course in dealing with crosses, the Spaniard's inexplicable error in gifting Shane Long an equaliser to Wayne Rooney's 12th-minute opener, setting the seal on what turned his Premier League debut into a personal disaster. Related Articles