So often this season United have been ‘so near yet so far’ to that elusive 4th place and had failed to take advantage of dropped points from teams above them. Today’s match put an end to all that with United creeping up to just one point below Chelsea. Burnley had been winless in their previous nine meetings against the Reds since 2009 and Manchester United had conceded just one goal in their five Premier League away games against Burnley, keeping a clean sheet in each of the last four and winning the last three.
In the end it was not really a contest. Burnley had only managed one shot on target across their previous two matches in the Premier League. The Burnley tactics of just booting the ball up field in both open play and set pieces with the hope of finding an opening proved no match for the United defense, United finally keeping a clean sheet.
There were good mature performances from James as well as Williams but I would give my Man of the Match once again to Anthony Martial. He made it three goals in two games to put United 1-0 up, when he made no mistake when sent 1v1 before the break, scoring coolly to maintain his 100% record against Burnley. Martial also could easily have claimed a second brace in almost as many days when he had a shot cleared off the line and had a goal disallowed. Overall he led the line well with intelligent movement.
Manchester United now haven’t lost their last league game in a calendar year since the year 2011, winning five matches and drawing three since.
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