David Moyes will be a bit more confident about his team's readiness for the Premier League season after their solid performance on Sunday. Manchester United lifted the Community Shield, comfortably defeating Wigan Athletic 2-0 on two goals by Robin van Persie.
Manchester United vs. Wigan Athletic, 2013 Community Shield: Final score 2-0
Robin van Persie scored twice for Manchester United, who had little problem keeping a clean sheet in a win over Wigan.
Van Persie got United on the board quickly and his goal likely undid Wigan's entire gameplan. He was integral in the setup of the goal, hitting a perfect ball out wide to Patrice Evra before making his run into the box. Evra returned the ball with a cross to the top of the box at the far side and van Persie hit a perfect looping header over Scott Carson.
More from our team blogs: Manchester United blog The Busby Babe Wigan Athletic blog Pie Eaters' Footie
The Red Devils took an unfortunate injury about 10 minutes later when Rafael went down with a lower body injury. He had trouble walking off the pitch and was immediately replaced by Chris Smalling, which moved Phil Jones from central defense to right back.
Very little else happened in the first half until around the 35-minute mark, when Wigan realized that they had a midfield, stopped playing route one balls to Grant Holt's head and started playing quicker passes on the ground. James McClean hit a shot wide after a dangerous run around five minutes from the break, while Emmerson Boyce missed Wigan's best chance of the game, missing a free header from close range off a free kick.
The second half started out even until the Latics were undone by an unfortunate deflected goal by van Persie. The Dutchman's shot came at the end of a pretty passing move, but it was on course to be saved by Carson until it redirected considerably off the leg of James Perch, making a save impossible for the Wigan keeper.
That goal proved to be a bit deflating for Wigan, who never threatened David De Gea’s goal or looked much like doing so.
Manchester United: De Gea, Evra, Vidic, Jones, Rafael (Smalling 16’), Carrick, Cleverley, Giggs (Anderson 67’), Welbeck (Kagawa 83’), van Persie (Januzaj 84’), Zaha (Valencia 61’)
Goals: Van Persie (6’, 59’)
Wigan Athletic: Carson, Crainey, Boyce, Perch, Barnett, Watson (Espinoza 71’), McArthur (McCann 61’), McCarthy (Dicko 86’), Maloney (Gomez 71’), Holt (Fortune 61’), McClean (McManaman 62’)
Goals: None
