Manchester United recovered from back-to-back defeats to beat Burnley despite Paul Pogba missing a penalty and Marcus Rashford being sent off.<\/p>\n
Romelu Lukaku scored twice in the first half as the Red Devils – beaten by Brighton and Tottenham in their previous two Premier League matches – were largely untroubled by their hosts.<\/p>\n
Pogba had the chance to stretch United’s lead midway through the second half but his penalty – after Aaron Lennon fouled Rashford – was saved by former Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart.<\/p>\n
And two minutes later the visitors were reduced to 10 men when Rashford was sent off for leaning into Burnley defender Phil Bardsley with his head.<\/p>\n
That made the closing stages unnecessarily tense for Jose Mourinho’s side, but the Clarets were unable to find a way through.<\/p>\n
Victory took United up to 10th in the table – level on points with Everton in seventh.<\/p>\n
The build-up to the match had been dominated by discussion of the Red Devils’ stuttering start to the season. There had even been speculation Mourinho could be one game from being sacked.<\/p>\n
And the club’s executive vice-chairman was the target of a banner that flew over the ground before kick-off reading ‘Ed Woodward: A specialist in failure’.<\/p>\n
If the United players were feeling the pressure, they did not show it during a thoroughly professional first-half performance.<\/p>\n
Lukaku looked back to his clinical best when he rose highest to power home Alexis Sanchez’s clipped cross after 27 minutes.<\/p>\n
And the Belgian reacted well for his second on the cusp of half-time, slamming the ball home after a series of kind deflections.<\/p>\n
But, with the game stretched in the second half, he failed to complete a hat-trick – squandering the best chance after rounding Hart under pressure from Ben Mee.<\/p>\n
Rashford, who had won the penalty shortly after coming on, then lost his cool in an altercation with Bardsley and was shown the first red card of his career.<\/p>\n
More pleasingly for Mourinho, his defence – again changed from the previous match – looked solid, keeping United’s first clean sheet of the season and a 10th in their past 11 visits to Turf Moor.<\/p>\n
A second home defeat of the season leaves Burnley 19th in the table with just one point taken from their opening four matches.<\/p>\n
They offered little throughout, perhaps affected by their Europa League exit to Olympiakos on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Even after going behind, Sean Dyche’s men seemed reluctant to attack United, and teenage winger Dwight McNeil had their only shot on target in the opening 45 minutes.<\/p>\n
Dyche attempted to give his side more impetus by bringing on Sam Vokes on 58 minutes, and the Wales striker forced United goalkeeper David de Gea into two good saves.<\/p>\n
But the Spaniard was not tested enough and Burnley are now without a league win in nine games, a run stretching back to April, meaning they are on the longest winless run of any side in the competition.<\/p>\n
The international break gives them a chance to regroup, while their exit from the Europa League at least allows them to focus solely on domestic matters.<\/p>\n
But Dyche will not be looking forward to January’s return fixture – after eight attempts, he is yet to beat Mourinho in the Premier League.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Manchester United recovered from back-to-back defeats to beat Burnley despite Paul Pogba missing a penalty and Marcus Rashford being sent off. Romelu Lukaku scored twice in the first half as the Red Devils – beaten by Brighton and Tottenham in their previous two Premier League matches – were largely untroubled by their hosts. Pogba had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":89844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[16042,14718,671,72,75,38212,13029,817],"yoast_head":"\n