Why Swansea Can Beat Manchester United in Premier League Opener

If you're looking for an opening day shock to the 2013-14 English Premier League season, Swansea hosting Manchester United at the Liberty Stadium could well be the one.

David Moyes hasn't exactly had the smoothest start to life as Manchester United manager, and as if following Sir Alex Ferguson wasn't hard enough, a succession of blows have further worsened his initiating months in charge.

Poor form across preseason tours, only one transfer—the £1 million capture of 20-year-old Guillermo Varela—in and a mammoth headache that goes by the name of Wayne Rooney have haunted the club.

A plethora of midfield targets have been missed out on, with Thiago Alcantara, Kevin Strootman and Cesc Fabregas all seemingly snubbing the reigning Premier League champions.

Now, according to Sami Kokbel of the Daily Mail, United have opened talks with Everton over Marouane Fellaini. He's a very good player, but he's not the big-name they wanted to ease the transition (Fergie-Moyes) for the fans.

The only promising stories emanating from the Old Trafford camp are summer success stories Jesse Lingard and Adnan Januzaj making waves and giving themselves a shot at first-team action come the start of the season.

United have traipsed all over the world, visiting Thailand, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong and Sweden for sponsorship and merchandising reasons. They've only won two of the six games they've played, Rooney hasn't featured and the team has clocked up some eyebrow-raising air-mileage.

Contrast this to their opening day opponents Swansea, who won all six of their preseason games by a collective margin of 28-1, and you start to worry.

On top of that, the Swans are already match-fit. They've played a preliminary UEFA Europa League fixture against Malmo and won 4-0, suggesting they're further forward in their fitness regime than their Premier League rivals.

The furthest Michael Laudrup's team flew was the Netherlands.

Those Swansea fans fearing stagnation have had their concerns seen to this summer, with the club picking up Jonjo Shelvey, Wilfried Bony, Jordi Amat and more for a combined £20 million plus.

The preparation could hardly have been better, and Bony in particular represents quite the the threat considering much of the attention will be focused on Michu.

10 days before the start of the season, Swansea look raring to go and likely to repeat (or improve) on last season's 8th-placed finish.

In contrast, United are treading water, hoping for a breakthrough in signing a midfielder, fending off bids for a star player and facing the uncertainty of starting their first season without Sir Alex for 26 years.

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