Manchester United: After Tough Loss, Kagawa and van Persie Show Their Worth

Last week, the Barclays Premier League opened with a bang. 

While Liverpool losing 3-0 to West Bromwich Albion was a pretty huge surprise, Manchester United losing 1-0 to Everton quite possibly "takes the cake."

Did Manchester United really play that badly?

Well, they managed 63 percent ball possession while throwing 16 shots on net. The problem was, of those 16, only five shots were on target. In addition, the defensive game has been looking questionable with the absence of Rio Ferdinand.   

Marouane Fellaini had a pretty good game, too. 

ESPN reports that Sir Alex Ferguson announced that the spending time was over, and now it's time to start winning. 

They did just that.

The Red Devils looked like a very different team in their home-opener against Fulham, at least offensively. 

While it's blatantly obvious that the Devils miss the presence of Ferdinand, the home-opener was a must-win.  

United put on quite a show at Old Trafford beating Fulham 3-2. It should be mentioned that Fulham's second goal was actually an own-goal credited to Vidic, which really looked like De Gea's wrongdoing.  

Of those three goals, two came from newly-signed superstars Robin van Persie and Shinji Kagawa.

The most interesting part of this match was that Wayne Rooney found himself on the bench, while Nani wasn't included at all.

Are Manchester United turning a new leaf?

Highly unlikely.

Sir Alex Ferguson is probably flirting with all the great pieces he now has to play with. Once he finds the right combination of players, English Premiership, watch out.

The fact is that Manchester City is not only the Devils' greatest rival, but they are also the current champions of the EPL. They've accomplished this by putting together a great squad that requires, well, a lot of money.

Now that Manchester United have invested a great amount of money in their new signings, they hope to climb back to the top of the table.

The biggest question is: Will it be enough?

Hopefully they build on this win and provide some much-needed competition for their city-rival and EPL best, Manchester City.