Manchester United was very close to begin the new season without two of their most important players. Both Wayne Rooney and Paul Scholes were sent off during Man U's friendly against FC Porto last week. The game was part of the Amsterdam friendly tournament and saw United finish the opener with 9 men.

Rooney continued his incredible bad reputation inside the football field by elbowing one of his Portuguese opponents. And it was a shame to receive another red card after almost a month from his World Cup appearance, especially since he scored a wonderful goal (against Porto) along the way.

Paul Scholes produced a horrible tackle a few minutes after Man U remained in 10, and was shown the red card as well. Soon after the match ended, the match's referee wrote a report on the two players and gave it to the Dutch Football Association. The report was immediately to be sent to the FA officials, so that the 2 players would miss Manchester United first match in this season's Premiership.

Still, the FA did not yet receive the documentation from their Dutch counterparts and are not expected to make a decision until the 20th of August - the day the Premiership gets under way. And that's because the FA rules state that no player should be suspended unless the FA board takes 14 days to resolve the matter.

Chelsea got a pre-Premiership boost also, when finding out that winger Joe Cole might be ready to enter the field by the end of the month. He suffered a ligament injury in Chelsea's friendly against the MLS All Stars and was thought to be missing the field for at least 6 weeks. His trainer, Steve Clark, assured the Chelsea fans that Cole will be in quicker than that.