Manchester United-Birmingham City: EPL Week One Preview

In their first game of the new EPL season, defending champion Manchester United will host recently promoted Birmingham City at Old Trafford on Aug. 16.

In this match, Man United will be playing their first Premier League match without Carlos Tevez and Cristiano Ronaldo, while Birmingham City will be looking to solidify themselves as a legitimate Premier League club with a strong start in this match.

Also in this match, United will be playing either Ben Foster or Tomasz Kuszczak in goal for the injured Edwin Van de Sar. Meanwhile, Birmingham City will be breaking in players such as Barry Ferguson in order to help them stay up in the Premier League.

Here is a preview of how this match should play out for both of these clubs.

Manchester United

In their first match of the season, Manchester United will be looking to accomplish several tasks in order to be successful.

The first one is to attack early in the match, as they will want to set the tempo of the match as early as possible.

The second task is for the defense to play a strong game in the back, as they will need to protect either Foster or Kuszczak as best as they can.

And the third and final task is to control play and make sure that everyone gets involved in the game.

If United could do all of this, they will have a great chance of success in this match.

Here is a preview of the match for Birmingham City.

Birmingham City

In this important first match of the new season, Birmingham City will be looking to do several tasks in order to be successful.

The first is to make sure Man United doesn't control the tempo of the match, as that could put the Blues in a deep hole that they might not be able to get themselves out of in order to get a positive result.

The second is to just play their best possible football, as that will help them give Manchester United a strong fight on their hands.

And the third and final task is to capitalize on as many chances as they can, as United won't have Van de Sar in the net to stop Birmingham City's shots.

Finally, this should be a good match between Manchester United and Birmingham City, as both of these teams look to get off to a good start for this season. A win in this match will help either of these teams throughout this upcoming Barclays Premier League campaign.