I would have to say no. No in the respect that nothing is up for grabs apart from fitness, sharpness and first team places (and for some players to be in the shop window).
A couple of things to note. The OP said Man Utd never have a bad pre-season. Check out their stats from last year:
Man United 3-1 Celtic
Philadelphia Union 0-1 Man United
Kansas City Wizards 2-1 Man United
MLS All-Stars 2-5 Man United
Chivas 3-2 Man United
League of Ireland XI 1-7 Man United
So they lost two games, and conceded 9 goals against inferior opposition. Could that be classed as poor? It's not brilliant, but one thing is certain, it had no impact on them winning the league.
Interesting as well that in 06/07, when we reached the CL final for a second time under Rafa. We'd secured 4th place quite early I recall, and for the last few games, played what you might call weakened teams (the 1-0 defeat to Fulham sticks out, although we did play them off the park). If we had played full strength teams, we could have ended up with more points theoretically.
Perhaps more interesting are Man City's pre-season results last year:
Portland Timbers 0-3 Man City
Sporting Lisbon 2-0 Man City
New York Red Bulls 2-1 Man City
America 1-1 Man City
Inter Milan 3-0 Man City
Borussia Dortmund 3-1 Man City
Man City 2-0 Valencia
I think they mean nothing. Surprisingly, talksport came to the same conclusion which is where I got these results from. Link is below.
http://www.talksport.co.uk/magazine/features/2011-07-22/premier-league-big-boys-2010-pre-season-results-did-they-mean-anythingI guess everyones interest and expectation is reignited so if we are perceived to be failing already people are going to start getting a little twitchy.