Man Utd now just a point off top four after Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford strike to beat Burnley at Turf Moor
SO A turbulent year for Manchester United at least finished on a high.
Two wins in three days pushed The Red Devils up to fifth just a point behind fourth placed Chelsea who play Arsenal at the Emirates on Sunday.
More importantly the boss believes things are moving in the right direction with his young team.
If you were at Watford last Sunday you wouldn’t have thought so.
But victories over Newcastle and now Burnley have put a different gloss on things.
There remains a consistency problem to say the least.
This was only the their third away win in 14 Premier League games.
You are just never quite sure which United is going to turn up.
The side that turned up yesterday was one that manager Ole Solskjaer could be pleased with as they won a bruising encounter.
They also chalked up their first clean sheet in 15 Premier League games.
Anthony Martial was on target once again with the 44th minute winner two days after he struck twice in the 4-1 win over Newcastle.
That is ten in 19 games for him now. He could have had a hat-trick yesterday.
Marcus Rashford got the second in the fifth minute of injury time. That’s 19 goals this season for him for club and country.
While it took until just before the break to score they had always been looking the most likely to do just that.
Both Marcus Rashford and Fred had come close with free kicks early on.
In the 19th minute they came desperately close as well.
It was a quick break with Daniel James charging forward finding Andreas Pereira, he set up Rashford and his shot was inches wide.
After 33 minutes Martial had a shot cleared off the line by Phil Bardsley but he would not be denied with his next chance.
Charlie Taylor was at fault as dithered on the ball and was dispossessed by Pereira.
The Brazilian immediately curled a low pass into the path of Martial who slid a shot past Nick Pope into the bottom right-hand corner.
He found the back of the net again in the second-half but had his 51st minute effort cancelled out for a foul on James Tarkowski.
Goalkeeper Pope also denied him with a fine save with his outstretched right foot.
The closest Burnley actually came to a goal was though ex-United player Phil Bardsley whose powerful low drive in the 69th minute was well saved by David De Gea.
United would wrap up the win in injury time when the brilliant Daniel James broke and fed Rashford who went round goalkeeper Nick Pope and slid the ball home.
While the scoreline was narrow until then and Burnley did rally after the break it always looked like United were in control of affairs.
It wasn’t pretty but games here rarely are.
The United players were kicked from pillar to post by Burnley.
The treatment dished out to James was awful.
Burnley’s captain Ben Mee could easily have seen red for his studs up challenge on him on the hour.
Fred was once again a solid presence in the centre of the park.
A player who has thrived in Paul Pogba’s absence.
And where was he yesterday you might ask?
United needed him in the ranks with Scott McTominay injured.
But having played 26 minutes against Watford last Sunday and 45 against Newcastle on Boxing Day, this match was deemed to have been too much in too short a space of time.
Having not played since September manager Ole Solskjaer will claim he is just being careful.
What doesn’t make sense, however, is why play him in the second half against Newcastle when he will have known McTominay was going to miss the Burnley match.
He could not continue after half time because of a knee injury.
So Solskjaer needed Pogba for the trip to Burnley not the second-half against Newcastle.
By the manager’s own admission his team used that second-half as recovery time with the game wrapped up with them 3-1 ahead at the break and dominating.
Supporters on social media were fuming at the player’s absence and the explanation.
At the very least he should have been on the bench.
You really wonder if his heart is in it at all and whether United should just accept defeat, as they did with Alexis Sanchez and Romelu Lukaku.
Give him the move he wants and buy a couple of players who want to do it for United.
After all, their best performances this season have been without him in the side.
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When have you watched a Manchester United game he has played in and gone ‘wow, how good was Pogba!’ Never.
It’s a big decision that needs to be made as we approach the January transfer window.
There will be no tears if he departs as there were non yesterday in his absence, just cheers at the final whistle for the United faithful.