Ruud van Nistelrooy, Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville all found themselves removed from the firing line as Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson kept his promise to freshen up his side for the Premiership visit of Birmingham.
While Giggs and Neville were both on the United bench, top scorer van Nistelrooy was missing from the squad completely after suffering a toe injury in the build-up to the match, although he is not expected to miss the New Year's Day clash with Sunderland.
England duo David Beckham and Rio Ferdinand were among those brought back into the United line-up. Beckham had not started a league game since the beginning of November after suffering a broken rib, while a series of injuries have restricted Ferdinand to just nine Premiership appearances since his record £29.3 million move from Leeds.
Skipper Roy Keane kept his place and Diego Forlan returned but there was no spot for centre-half Laurent Blanc, criticised by many in the wake of United's Boxing Day defeat at Middlesbrough.
Visitors' boss Steve Bruce was making an emotional return to Old Trafford, the ground where he celebrated three title successes as United captain.
Even though the Blues had not recorded a victory over today's opponents since 1978, Bruce had reason to be optimistic as well given his team's encouraging introduction to the top flight.
Record signing Clinton Morrison was recalled after starting the Boxing Day draw with Everton on the bench, while former United trainee Jovan Kirovski had recovered from a hamstring strain.
Man Utd: Barthez, Brown, Ferdinand, Silvestre, O'Shea, Beckham, Keane, Veron, Scholes, Forlan, Solskjaer. Subs: Ricardo, Gary Neville, Phil Neville, Giggs, Richardson.
Birmingham: Vaesen, Kenna, Cunningham, Michael Johnson, Sadler, Devlin, Savage, Cisse, Lazaridis, Morrison, Kirovski. Subs: Bennett, Horsfield, Hughes, Powell, Woodhouse.
Referee: M Dean