Jose Mourinho's first game as manager of Manchester United ended in a short trip and comfortable 2-0 victory over newly-promoted Championship side Wigan Athletic at their DW Stadium on Saturday.
Goals early in the second half from Will Keane and Andreas Pereira secured victory for United who parted company with former manager Louis van Gaal after winning the FA Cup on their last competitive outing two months ago.
It was a weakened United line-up at the disposal of their new manager given that 14 players who represented their countries in the European Championships and Copa America this summer were unavailable and have yet to return to training.
Nevertheless, it is a sign of the strength in depth that Mourinho will have at his call this season that the starting line-up he selected still boasted summer signings Eric Bailly and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, bought for a total of nearly £60 million (71.7 million euros), and England left-back Luke Shaw, returning after 10 months out of action with a broken leg.
Mkhitaryan was withdrawn at half-time, but Mourinho was happy with the Armenian's contribution.
[Henrikh] Mkhitaryan is a top-class player and currently at the best stage for a footballer – 27/28 years old. He is magnificent the way he thinks about football, he thinks very quickly and it’s so sweet how he touches the ball," he told MUTV.
"He can play in different positions behind the striker. He doesn’t have the sharpness yet but his performance was very positive.
Bailly came off after 80 minutes to be replaced by Axel Tuanzebe, and again the Portugese coach was happy with his other recent purchase.
"With Eric [Bailly] the way the fans showed how much they liked his performance when I changed him is enough. Of course he is a very young boy coming from a very different environment, but you could see what he is at this moment," he added.
"I will give him everything to try to make him better and better like I did with other central defenders I’ve had in my hands. He has showed the potential we saw when we decided to buy him."