Giggs rues sloppy United
Ryan Giggs believes the loss of two valuable points at Fulham will be felt even more keenly by Manchester United because they had targeted the Premier League as their number one priority this season.
Sir Alex Ferguson described the 2-2 draw as "silly" and questioned why Nani took the penalty, that he subsequently missed, which should have confirmed victory for his team ahead of Giggs, who scored twice from the spot against Tottenham last season.
Giggs will hope he doesn't have cause to regret the failure to assert his authority, telling MUTV: "The Premier League is probably the most important after losing the title by a point last season."
The one consolation United can take is that at least they did not lose. For, after getting beaten seven times last season, it is an area Giggs knew had to improve.
"We lost far too many last year," he said. "They were games we were capable of winning too.
"That was the most disappointing thing. You know you are going to slip-up during a season, and every away game is going to be tough, but you have to limit the mistakes."
It is not the first time in recent seasons United have stumbled so early. Although they ended up getting relegated, Burnley's triumph over the Red Devils thanks to Robbie Blake's thunderbolt in the second game of the season last term will not be forgotten at Turf Moor in a hurry.
The previous two seasons began with home draws against clubs - Newcastle and Reading - who ended up going down, and formed part of starts that yielded just five points from the opening four games.
With four already in the bag from two matches and West Ham due at Old Trafford on Saturday having suffered successive defeats under Avram Grant, Sir Alex Ferguson's men should at least better that total. However, as stand-in skipper Nemanja Vidic confirmed, the feeling of having missed an opportunity was hard to escape.
"It's a bad result, especially when we were in such a good position going into the last minutes of the game," said the Serbian. "A draw is difficult to take and we feel real disappointment about what happened in the end."
