Man United beats Tottenham 1-0 in dull Premier League season opener

The beginning is only the beginning. And the thing with beginnings is that nothing about them is final. As such, thankfully, it's far too early to make any kind of statement at all about how this new Premier League season will unfold based off its opener on Saturday. Manchester United beat Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 on a Kyle Walker own goal in the dreariest of games and it could mean nothing. It could also mean everything.

The point is: It's too soon to tell. These teams will play 37 more games each, and the trend set Saturday – if it even proves to be a trend – could be sustained or totally bucked.

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If you do want to view this game as some kind of harbinger, though, neither team would have walked out of Old Trafford with a great deal of confidence about how things are to transpire this year. The fan, meanwhile, would break into a cold sweat over the prospect of more games inducing such a heavy and spirit-crushing boredom as this one did.

Spurs may have felt good about the first half of their first half. Just five minutes into the game, Harry Kane dinked a short ball over the top for Christian Eriksen, who nodded the ball on for himself and then side-footed his volley only just over. Indeed, Tottenham was the better team early on, taking the game to United.

There was a beautiful geometry to their attacks, whereas United, if it did anything at all, just stomped forward and tried to swing in crosses on the counterattacks. It was rudimentary by comparison, which will have been painfully plain to their attacking football ideologue of a manager, Louis van Gaal.

Still, some good fortune befell the Red Devils that eventually would yield three points as well. Nabil Benteleb gave the ball away cheaply in his own half in the 22nd minute. United barreled forward and, in his attempt to keep Wayne Rooney from finishing on Ashley Young's low cross, Walker poked the ball past his own goalkeeper, Michel Vorm. On the bench, van Gaal was left utterly unimpressed as his staff and substitutes celebrated.

This moment of adversity seemed to crush Spurs' spirits. After going down, they lost all of the confidence and vigor that had pinned United back and the team in red seized control. That turned a spritely game into a dispiriting one. United had a tick more possession in the first half but recorded no shots on goal whatsoever. They managed to forge no danger at all.

It would, in fact, take until the 65th minute for United to put a shot on target, when Young picked up a cross at the far post, cut inside and hit it to Vorm's near post, without troubling the Dutch goalie much. Tottenham regained some composure in the second half, but had little to show for its toil except for a late flurry of chances that were well foisted by new United goalkeeper Sergio Romero.

Perhaps the most excitement on offer was for Bastian Schweinsteiger stepping into the fray in the second half, making his debut after coming over from his long and distinguished career at Bayern Munich, to much excitement from the United fans. They also recognized the mononymous Memphis – who doesn't want to be known as Depay, his estranged father's name – and Matteo Darmian, who had both made promising debuts as well.

So United gained three very fortuitous points to begin the season. Last year, it took them four games to get that many. That was probably the only good news for either team.

But luckily, for both clubs, this is only the beginning.

Leander Schaerlaeckens is a soccer columnist for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter @LeanderAlphabet.