While Celtic took stalk of the aftermath of their Champions League tie with Legia Warsaw the SPFL got underway over the weekend.
Ronny Deila’s first two opponents were in action on Sunday and got their campaigns off to winning starts with impressive away winss.
Much fancied Aberdeen were brought back to earth with a 3-0 defeat at home from United who showed no ill effects from losing Ryan Gauld and Andy Robertson.
Ryan Dow and Gary Mackay Steven put United in front at half-time with a stoppage time goal from Chris Erskine giving the away support plenty to celebrate as they headed back to Tayside.
“It’s a good start for us,” manager Jackie McNamara admitted. “I don’t think many people would have seen that result today coming, and there were a lot of pleasing things. We looked defensively solid, and a threat going forward.
“We felt we needed to address the defence after last season. We had a good attacking force with pace and power, but defensively it was a worry, not just from open play but set-pieces as well.”
United visit Celtic on Saturday with the hoops opening their domestic campaign away to St Johnstone on Wednesday night.
The Perth side were knocked out of the Europa League by Sparta Trnava in midweek then lost leading scorer Stevie May to Sheffield Wednesday for £800,000 on Saturday.
Despite those set backs St Johnstone were 2-1 winners at Ross County with manager Tommy Wright satisfied after a testing week.
“It’s always nice to get the first win particularly on the road and after the tough game we had last week,” he admitted. “I thought the players looked fresh and they passed the ball really well.
“We had a couple of scares in the first half and we probably should have done better with their goal, we lost it in midfield a bit too easily. At 2-1 you can never be comfortable but I don’t think Alan Mannus had many more saves to make.”