Ole Gunnar Solskjær had promised that youth would count in Manchester United’s favour for this festive trip to Burnley. In the end, it is difficult to pinpoint whether that was exactly what led them to a second successive victory, but it certainly helped. Nights like these can go a long way in determining the success of a season and as Marcus Rashford rounded Nick Pope to ensure United moved to within a point of the Champions League places, it was possible to surmise that this was a significant step forwards for Solskjær’s men.
A first clean sheet since September, and their first away from home since all the way back in February, was perhaps the biggest positive of all, but there were plus points all across the pitch for United. Without Scott McTominay and Paul Pogba it would have been easy to fear the worst for their midfield, but the makeshift trio of Fred, Andreas Pereira – who was the outstanding player here – and Nemanja Matic, were pivotal.
“We’ve responded well after the Watford defeat,” Solskjær said. “We defended fantastically, and stood up against two strikers who are a real handful. We haven’t had a clean sheet in the league since September, and it was important for the team. We know you can’t play fantastic football and score five every time, so if you don’t concede, you have a chance.”
Twenty-one points adrift of the league leaders is far from the ideal place in which to finish a decade that began with United regularly competing for major honours, but United dominated enough of this contest to come away with a deserved win. Burnley remain a pillar of inconsistency, with this their second consecutive defeat having previously recorded back-to-back wins. Here they simply didn’t do enough to test United’s defence, meaning that when Anthony Martial struck on the stroke of half-time it was always likely to be pivotal even if the win was not totally secured until the final seconds with Rashford’s goal.
For all the post-match celebrations among United’s players and their supporters, it was one defensive mistake from Burnley in the first half which changed this game. Both sides had threatened without any real cutting edge in the opening 40 minutes before Charlie Taylor’s lapse inside his own half afforded Martial a chance he took with aplomb. Pereira dispossessed Taylor superbly and slid the ball across goal, and the Frenchman did the rest.
“The mistake changed things,” conceded Sean Dyche, Burnley’s manager. “When we’ve played the big sides this season we’ve been punished for our mistakes. But there was a lot of pleasing aspects from tonight. We certainly asked questions and tried to open them up.” The hosts certainly improved after half-time, upping the intensity and putting their opponents under a period of sustained pressure for the first time.
But the fact that it was not until the final quarter when David de Gea was finally called into action to turn a Phil Bardsley effort around the post underlined the fact that this was a frustrating night in front of goal for Burnley. Bardsley had earlier been booked after dragging down Brandon Williams, another player who came in here and impressed, with the left-back creating a number of opportunities.
Martial thought he had his second earlier in the half when he rifled home from close range, but his effort was disallowed for a foul in the buildup. The Frenchman probably should have put Burnley to bed sooner too after being set free by Daniel James in the dying moments, but he could not find the required finish.
Burnley certainly did their best to create a grandstand finish but they lacked any sort of cutting edge. A free-kick from Johann Berg Gudmundsson shaved the top of De Gea’s goal before Dyche’s side were finally finished off in injury-time. James set Rashford free and he had the composure to round Pope and slot home. In truth, on a bitterly cold evening in Lancashire, it was the least he and his teammates deserved.