Season Recap: Burnley 0 Manchester United 2

 

Goals from Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford secured victory for Manchester United for the fourth successive year at Turf Moor and ensured the Reds ended 2019 on a high note.

 

Just two days after his brace helped sink Newcastle United at Old Trafford, the France forward once again remained calm under pressure to slip Andreas Pereira’s through ball beyond Nick Pope after 44 minutes.

 

Rashford wrapped things up with a breakaway goal in injury time and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men merited the three points after a mature team performance against a predictably physical home side.

 

Read our full report here.

 

 

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer: "In the first half, we laid the foundation. We could go in and defend in the second half – and the defending was brilliant. Harry [Maguire] and Victor [Lindelof] were brilliant and stood up against two real handfuls of strikers. Chris Wood and Ashley Barnes. I wouldn’t like to be a centre-back playing against them! The full-backs were really, really aggressive in stopping crosses and, when the crosses came in, Harry and Victor were unbelievable. Harry had a couple of headers near the end that gives us the points. At 1-0, we defend and then we get the second one. We should have got it earlier but, finally, we got it. David [De Gea] is delighted with the clean sheet and the back four is as well."

 

Andreas Pereira: "We knew it was going to be a difficult game, a difficult stadium here, and it's important after Newcastle [because] we wanted to keep going. It was a good test and we did well. We know they play very direct and in the air, and it's very tough to play here, but we showed great mentality, and when we got the ball we put it down and played well. The back line and the midfield did very well. They were very calm and they controlled the game for us."

 

Emerging Academy star Brandon Williams came out on top in our post-match vote following the win in east Lancashire. It was rich reward for a plucky individual display full of positivity and character. "Brandon’s never let us down this season,” said Solskjaer, in his post-match press conference. "He’s been excellent and he’s growing and improving. I told him a few weeks ago he was going to play and he’s just been focused on tonight and he did really well."