Boss enjoys Wembley win
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Sir Alex Ferguson was an interested spectator at Craven Cottage to watch Fulham's final pre-season friendly with Werder Bremen.
Although the Manchester United boss has claimed he is happy with his current squad, the opportunity to take a look at Germany playmaker Mesut Ozil was too much to resist.
Ferguson even swerved United's annual public training session at Old Trafford to see Ozil in action and given the 21-year-old has said previously how much he admires United, the Scot's presence will only fuel rumours of an imminent transfer.
Not that Ozil will have been too pleased about the result though as Fulham strode to an impressive 5-1 win, with Zoltan Gera netting a hat-trick.
Prospective England striker Bobby Zamora was also on target, offering a further nudge to national team manager Fabio Capello.
Also making their mark on Saturday were Arsenal duo Kieran Gibbs and Jack Wilshere, who were involved in an extraordinary 6-5 victory against Legia Warsaw.
Gibbs was among those on target in an 11-goal thriller the Gunners managed to edge despite falling 3-0 down.
Marouane Chamakh began the comeback, although it was not until Emmanuel Eboue scored twice in eight second-half minutes that Arsene Wenger's men managed to draw level.
Gibbs' effort put them in front but it took late goals from Jay Emmanuel-Thomas and Samir Nasri to ensure victory in a pre-season encounter that will live long in the memory.
The high point of Everton's trip to Germany to face Steve McClaren's Wolfsburg was undoubtedly confirmation that Mikel Arteta has signed a five-year contract extension with the Goodison Park outfit.
Little went right once the match began as the Toffeemen fell to a 2-0 defeat, which included a Tim Howard penalty save from highly-rated striker Edin Dzeko.
Robbie Keane's return to prominence at Tottenham continued as the Irishman bagged a second-half brace to seal a 3-2 victory over Fiorentina at White Hart Lane.
Roman Pavlyuchenko tapped home one equaliser but Harry Redknapp's men were behind until Keane took centre stage, grabbing an injury-time winner to leave Tottenham to head into a crucial two-week period in positive mood.
Mame Biram Diouf scored on his debut for Blackburn to earn Sam Allardyce's men a 1-1 draw against Hearts.
Diouf has moved to Ewood Park on loan from Manchester United and quickly made an impact after Suso Santana's deflected effort had given the Scots a first-half lead at Tynecastle.
West Ham beat Deportivo La Coruna on penalties, Pablo Barrera converting the winner for Avram Grant's men, who had finished the match goalless after 90 minutes.
Birmingham lost their unbeaten record in pre-season as Emilio Nsue's second-half effort proved enough for Real Mallorca at St Andrew's.
It was not the way Ben Foster wanted to mark his home debut in the Blues goal, although fellow new boy Nikola Zigic went close to an equaliser late on.
West Brom suffered a blow before the start of their clash with Osasuna as summer arrival Pablo Ibanez was forced to pull out through injury.
It didn't stop Roberto Di Matteo's men turning in an impressive performance, with Scotland international James Morrison putting them in front.
However, it did not last and Oier equalised five minutes from time.
Aberdeen's toughest test of their pre-season programme proved too much as the Scottish Premier League outfit lost 2-0 to Kaiserslautern in Germany.
Seven days before their opening SPL fixture with Celtic, Inverness had marginally more joy, Richie Foran returning from injury to grab the goal that earned a home draw with Royal Antwerp.
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Sir Alex Ferguson says he is still finalising his Barclays Premier League squad for the 2010/11 season following the introduction of new rules regarding the size and make-up of his pool of players.
Under new guidelines, clubs are required to register a squad of up to 25 players, which must include at least eight 'home-grown' players, at the end of each transfer window – the first deadline this season is 17:00 BST on 1 September.
Home-grown players do not have to be English and are defined as those who "irrespective of nationality or age, have been affiliated to the FA or Welsh FA for a period of three seasons or 36 months prior to their 21st birthday.”
Clubs can supplement their squad with an unlimited number of players under the age of 21.
One player Sir Alex is still waiting on in terms of availability this season is Owen Hargreaves. The midfielder is currently having treatment in America following a set-back in his recovery from a long-term tendonitis problem, but the United manager insists he will give Hargreaves as long as possible before deciding whether or not to include him in his final 25.
“We can keep it open for Owen until 31 August,” insisted the Reds’ boss. “There is no rush. Owen will stay in America until he’s ready to come back into training.
“I haven’t looked into how the new rules affect everyone else yet, I’ve only addressed what we’ve had to deal with.
“It was interesting to sit down and assess the squad - the Da Silvas, for example, aren’t classed as home-grown players until this time next year. [Kiko] Macheda comes under the same umbrella. So there have been all these little things we’ve had to look at.
“The foundational part of our home-grown players like Giggs, Neville, Scholes, Fletcher and Brown is fine, there are no problems there.
“[John] O’Shea is a strange one though – he’s not accepted in the Champions League as a home-grown player because he missed the deadline by six days when he first joined us, but he is classed as home-grown in the Premier League.
“I think the new rules are a good thing. It had to happen. You have to pay attention to them and make sure you tick all the boxes and don’t make any mistakes.” -
For all the pre-match fire-fighting about the importance of the Community Shield, Sir Alex Ferguson admitted he was only able to enjoy Sunday's showpiece because United took home the silverware.
An entertaining encounter between United and Chelsea ended 3-1 in the Reds' favour, and Sir Alex was satisfied with the way his side acquitted themselves against the reigning Double holders.
"Coming to Wembley, you want to win," the Boss told MUTV. "That's the only way you can enjoy it. I think the players played some good football at times and made some good chances.
"It's never an easy game against Chelsea - they're the main players in the game now. It used to be Arsenal challenging against us a few years back, now you have to look at Chelsea in the last few years to know that when you play them it's a real game."
Moreover, Sir Alex was able to give vital playing time to several players starved of action during pre-season - his World Cup contingent, Nani and Michael Owen - and the manager was delighted to see them all up to speed.
"We had to play them because they've only played 45 minutes," he said. "It's a little bit of a risk in some ways, but they've got the experience and personality to deal with that. They've got that behind them.
"Wayne goes on the international break on Wednesday, so does Ji-sung. Vida did fantastically well to play for 90 minutes, considering he's only had one game, and Valencia was exactly the same. We're pleased that we've given these players a game."
The most surprising inclusion was Michael Carrick, who shone in midfield just two days after being publicly ruled out of action for a fortnight. Although that announcement confirmed Carrick's absence from international duty, Sir Alex was quick to play down any notion of underhandedness.
"It's my fault," he said. "I announced on Friday he'd be out for two weeks, which we thought because he got the injury on Wednesday. But he turned up on Saturday and said he wanted to try it and he was ok.
"It wasn't a matter of confusing the FA in any shape or form. I don't know if they'll call him up now, maybe they will. But nontheless it was a surprise he was fit." -
luckily, Edwin Van Sar was on form.
it showed again, MU is too dependent on Scholes, and MU's midfield is deviod of pace. and at times, failed to cover the back4. Imagine someone in the mold of Essien in MU's colors.
And seriously, MU need Evra back.