Louis Van Gaal's tenure as Manchester United manager gets off to the worst possible start, as Swansea City record famous victory at Old Trafford.

Despite the millions of advertising minutes devoted to the start of the 23rd season of the “best league in the world”, the opening 25 minutes proved to be a sloppy, and rather badly cast, affair. Both side’s, in truth, struggled to keep hold of the ball and move forward with any real cohesion.

The first sight of goal came from Van Gaal’s men, after some neat interplay between new boy, Ander Herrera, and Phil Jones down the right flank. Jones’ subsequent first time cross, due to its lack of direction, flew toward the near post, where Fabianski was on hand to palm the ball clear of danger.

However, despite Man Utd’s apparent dominance of possession in the opening exchanges, it was Swansea City who took the lead inside the opening 30 minutes, through a wonderful finessed effort from Ki. The South Korean international’s first time side footed effort from the edge of the penalty area found its way into the bottom corner of De Gea’s goal, after a prodded pass across the edge of the 18 yard line from Sigurdsson.

In the aftermath of the goal, the game resigned to its original tempo. Both sides, in spite of Man Utd’s attempts to push forward, were rather toothless in an offensive sense, as Swansea’s diligent defensive front proved to be enough to quell Van Gaal’s front three.

With his side struggling, Van Gaal opted to bring on Nani and revert to a 4-3-3, and United were duly rewarded for this change as Rooney grabbed the equaliser just five minutes after the interval. A Mata corner was met with a flicked header at the near post by Phil Jones, which landed to Rooney in the middle of the penalty area. The new captain, inside the six yard box, was able to overhead kick the ball into the roof of the net.

The home side almost took the lead through Rooney on the hour mark. The number ten’s 25 yard costless kick curled beautifully over the Swansea City wall and off the post.

This proved to be the closest Van Gaal’s men would come to taking the lead, as, against the run of play, Swansea scored their second of the day after fantastic work from new signing, Montero. The Ecuador international’s powerful run and subsequent chip to the back post was met by Routledge, whose misdirected volleyed effort on goal was met by Sigurdsson. The former Spurs man, from just outside the six yard box, was able to flick the ball under the body of De Gea and into the back of the net.

Manchester United poured men forward in the final ten minutes, however the Welsh outfit battened down the hatches brilliantly to hold onto their one goal lead.

Player Ratings VAVEL

Manchester United (1) Swansea City (2)
De Gea 4 Fabianski 7
Young 3 Rangel 6
Blackett 4 Amat 6
Smalling 4 Williams 7
Jones 5 (min. 53) Taylor 7
(min. 23) Lingard 4 Sigurdsson 8
(min. 66) Herrera 6 Shelvey 6
Fletcher 5 Ki 7
Mata 5 (min. 66) Dyer 6
(min. 46) Hernández 3 Routledge 6
Rooney 6 (min. 76) Bony 5
Suplentes
(min. 23) Januzaj 7 (min. 66) Montero 6
(min. 46) Nani 6 (min. 76) Gomis 5
(min. 66) Fellaini 5 (min. 53) Tiendalli 6