The 2006–07 season was Manchester United's 15th season in the Premier League, and their 32nd consecutive season in the top division of English football. United enjoyed a much more successful season than the previous three seasons, winning the Premier League by a six-point margin over Chelsea. They also reached the final of the FA Cup and the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League, losing to Chelsea and Milan respectively. However, for all their success in the major competitions, the club was unable to defend the League Cup title they had won in 2005–06, losing to Southend United in the Fourth Round.
Manchester United were not only dominant on a team level in 2006–07, but also on an individual level, with eight United players earning spots in the PFA Team of the Year, as well as Cristiano Ronaldo picking up no less than eight individual awards for his performances over the season and Sir Alex Ferguson winning the Premier League's Manager of the Season award.
The 2006–07 season also marked the 50th anniversary of the Busby Babes' first foray into European competition. The event was marked by a charity football match, organised in collaboration with UEFA, who were commemorating 50 years since the signing of the Treaty of Rome, against a team of the best players from Europe's top clubs.
Pre-season and friendlies United began their pre-season in July 2006 with the Vodacom Challenge in South Africa, their first time in the country for 13 years. The tournament involved matches against South Africa's top two teams, Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs, followed by a further match against the winner of a play-off between the two host sides. The Red Devils started well, beating Orlando Pirates 4–0 in their first game, but almost came unstuck against Kaizer Chiefs, requiring an 83rd-minute goal from Dong Fangzhuo to secure the 1–0 win. Kaizer Chiefs then beat Orlando Pirates in the play-off, and managed to hold a relatively sub-par United side to a 0–0 draw before beating them 4–3 on penalties.
The team then took their pre-season back to Britain, beating Celtic 3–0 at Parkhead. This was followed by a 2–1 defeat to Preston North End, but the team bounced back to defeat Macclesfield Town 2–1 two days later.
The start of August saw United take part in the Amsterdam Tournament, involving Ajax, Inter Milan and Porto. The Reds played two games in Amsterdam, beating both Porto and Ajax, but the tournament will be remembered mostly for the sendings-off of both Paul Scholes – for a clumsy, mistimed challenge in the match against Porto – and Wayne Rooney – who inadvertently caught Porto defender Pepe in the face with his hand as he jumped uncontested for a high ball. In accordance with FIFA disciplinary procedure, the red cards resulted in the pair missing the first three games of the season.
Back to Britain again, and a fixture against Oxford United was next up, which United won comfortably 4–1. Finally, United returned home to Old Trafford on 12 August for their only home friendly of the 2006–07 pre-season. The visitors were Sevilla, who helped mark the official opening of Old Trafford's new North-West and North-East quadrants with a 3–0 win to United in front of a half-capacity crowd.
United played one more friendly during the 2006–07 season, the UEFA Celebration Match on 13 March. The match marked the 50th anniversary of the Busby Babes' first foray into European competition and 50 years since the signing of the Treaty of Rome, the treaty that laid the foundations for what became known as the European Union. The Red Devils took on a European XI, coached by the 2006 World Cup-winning manager Marcelo Lippi. The original squad selected by Lippi was hit by last minute injuries and withdrawals by some big names like Ronaldinho and David Beckham, forcing replacements to be drawn from Premier League teams like Bolton Wanderers and Portsmouth at short notice. Henrik Larsson was named captain for the Europe XI, the day after his loan spell at Old Trafford came to an end. United started the game very brightly, finding themselves 4–1 up at half-time, thanks to goals from Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo and Wes Brown. However, no further goals came for the home side as the visitors scored two consolation goals, leaving United as 4–3 winners.
DateOpponentsH / AResultF–AScorersAttendance15 July 2006Orlando PiratesN4–0Solskjær (2) 4', 43', Richardson 57', Seema 60' (o.g.)18 July 2006Kaizer ChiefsN1–0Dong 83'22 July 2006Kaizer ChiefsA0–0(3–4p)26 July 2006CelticA3–0Evans 8', Scholes (2) 61', 85'29 July 2006Preston North EndA1–2Solskjær 85' (pen.)12,54131 July 2006Macclesfield TownA2–1Rooney 46', Campbell 71'4 August 2006PortoN3–1Scholes 11', Rooney 19', Solskjær 73'25,0005 August 2006AjaxA1–0Giggs 76'8 August 2006Oxford UnitedA4–1Solskjær 6', Ronaldo (2) 13', 58', Fletcher 15'12 August 2006SevillaH3–0Saha 63', Ronaldo 88', D. Jones 90'40,13413 March 2007Europe XIH4–3Rooney (2) 6', 43', Brown 9', Ronaldo 35'74,343
Premier League
After an impressive pre-season, losing only two out of the ten games played, United began the Premier League season in earnest. Coming up against a Fulham side that had caused them so many problems in the past, United ran riot, scoring four goals inside the first twenty minutes at Old Trafford and eventually triumphing 5–1. Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo scored three goals between them against Fulham, but the partnership was broken up for the next game against Charlton by Rooney's suspension, picked up in the friendly against Porto.
Nevertheless, United ran out 3–0 winners over the team that would end the season in 19th place, with goals coming from Darren Fletcher, Louis Saha and Ole Gunnar Solskjær, who scored his first Premiership goal since April 2003. August was rounded off with a 2–1 win away to Watford, the winner scored by Ryan Giggs, who was celebrating his 600th start for United.
The team carried this rich vein of form into September, narrowly beating Tottenham 1–0 to make it four wins out of four. United's best start to a Premiership campaign came to an end, however, with the visit of Arsenal to Old Trafford. The Red Devils survived an early scare when new goalkeeper Tomasz Kuszczak saved a penalty he had given away when he brought down Emmanuel Adebayor, but Adebayor made amends for Gilberto's missed spot-kick by scoring the winning goal four minutes from time, and knocking United from the Premiership top spot for the first time in the season.
This minor slump in form continued against Reading the following weekend, United requiring a 73rd-minute equaliser from Cristiano Ronaldo to salvage a 1–1 draw. However, the Reds were not to be deterred and went on to win all four of their matches in October, starting with a 2–0 victory at home to Newcastle, both goals coming from Ole Solskjær. Wins against Wigan and arch-rivals Liverpool followed, and the month culminated with a 4–0 drubbing of Bolton Wanderers, Wayne Rooney scoring a hat-trick.
The winning streak went on for another three matches, against Portsmouth, Blackburn and Sheffield United, taking the total to seven consecutive wins before the visit of reigning champions Chelsea to the Theatre of Dreams. United got off to a flying start with two goalscoring chances coming early on, before Saha scored the opening goal in the 29th minute. The French striker picked up a defence-splitting pass from Wayne Rooney, before taking the ball onto his left foot and passing it around Ricardo Carvalho and beyond Carlo Cudicini's reach into the bottom-left corner of the net. The only other goal of the game fell to Ricardo Carvalho, securing a point for Chelsea and maintaining the Blues' three-point deficit behind United at the top of the table.
Following the Chelsea draw, United won another three games on the bounce, including a 3–1 victory in the Manchester derby, extending the Reds' unbeaten run to 12 games and their lead at the top of the table to 8 points. However, a 75th-minute Nigel Reo-Coker goal for West Ham United brought about only United's second defeat of the season, and allowed Chelsea to close the gap at the top to two points. Nevertheless, the Red Devils recovered, bouncing back from that defeat and beating Aston Villa 3–0 away from home. The match had many highlights, not least of which were Cristiano Ronaldo's dazzling form and a 25-yard volleyed goal from Paul Scholes, which was voted as the BBC's goal of the month for December 2006.
Ronaldo's contribution did not stop with his two goals against Villa, as he scored two more braces in his next two league games against Wigan and Reading. In fact, the Portuguese youngster won five out of the six Man of the Match awards for December, and he was named the Player of the Month for December.
The club's form was not immediately transferred into the new year as the Reds failed to beat Newcastle on New Year's Day, and then lost to Arsenal three weeks later. Fortunately, these two results were punctuated by emphatic wins over Aston Villa (3–1) and Watford (4–0). January 2007 also saw the arrival of Celtic and Sweden legend Henrik Larsson at Old Trafford. The striker was brought in to bolster United's thin strike force, of which the only fit members at the time were Wayne Rooney, Louis Saha and Ole Gunnar Solskjær, whose increasing age and long-term knee injury caused him to be restricted to substitute appearances at the most.
February began with a trip to White Hart Lane to take on Tottenham. The match began slowly, with United having to wait until just before half-time for their first goal, a Cristiano Ronaldo penalty. Nemanja Vidić scored the second just after the break, before Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs rounded off United's second four-goal haul in the space of a week. Unfortunately, the match ended badly for Edwin van der Sar, as he broke his nose bravely going into a challenge with Robbie Keane. United had already used all three of their substitutions, and were forced to put John O'Shea in goal. The Irish defender committed himself well to the task, and managed to keep a clean sheet, including one desperate save in a one-on-one with Robbie Keane.
After a 2–0 victory over Charlton, an away match at Fulham followed at the end of the month. Brian McBride put the Cottagers 1–0 up after 17 minutes, but Ryan Giggs managed to keep the Reds in the game with an equaliser just before the half-hour mark. Going into the last five minutes, the match looked like it was going to finish as a draw, and with Chelsea not playing that weekend, United couldn't afford to allow them any ground. Then, with two minutes to go, Cristiano Ronaldo received the ball near the halfway line and burst past the challenges of Moritz Volz and Clint Dempsey, before cutting into the area and smashing the ball along the ground into the bottom right hand corner of the net. The result put United nine points clear of Chelsea with ten games left in the season.
United then travelled to Anfield to face Liverpool in their next game. Despite losing Wayne Rooney through injury and having Paul Scholes sent off for a late clash with Xabi Alonso, John O'Shea gave United a winner in injury time after Pepe Reina had fumbled Cristiano Ronaldo's free kick. Edwin van der Sar had previously saved brilliantly from Peter Crouch. Sir Alex Ferguson celebrated the winner in his own unique fashion on the touchline, and it was easy to see why after his side had somehow fashioned a crucial three points.
Following the win at Anfield, United hosted Bolton Wanderers in their next game. United lost injured Gary Neville early on, but Park Ji-sung slid home from close-range after 14 minutes. The brilliant Cristiano Ronaldo ran through before setting up Rooney to chip in the second and then Park bundled home a third before the break. Rooney struck home again through a crashing volley. Gary Speed pulled a goal back with an 87th-minute penalty, but it was nothing more than a consolation goal for Bolton.