BURNLEY 0, MANCHESTER UNITED 1
Anthony Martial scored the solitary goal in this game early in the second half at Turf Moor as Manchester United reduced City’s lead at the Premier League summit to nine points against a battling Burnley side.
At some point during this month Alexis Sanchez will arrive at Old Trafford when the much discussed transfer deal with Arsenal is concluded with Henrikh Mkhitaryan going the other way to the Emirates.
For United, at least, the move could not come soon enough as Jose Mourinho’s team needed a player of his quality at Turf Moor after they were made to work hard to take the three points from Turf Moor against Burnley.
Martial’s goal after 54 minutes put the Reds into the lead but victory was not certain until after the final whistle as Sean Dyche’s men almost obtained another draw through sheer persistence despite their recent poor run of form.
Paul Pogba had an early chance with a flick that went over the bar while Jeff Hendrick fired wide. Ashley Young had been preferred to Luke Shaw at left back and almost repaid his manager’s faith by curling a shot wide from the left flank.
While United’s forays down the left wing were encouraging it seemed that Romelu Lukaku was having another off day but the Belgian did at least swing in a cross from the right to find Martial whose emphatic finish off the crossbar from 13 yards out for his third Premier League goal in as many games and 11th of the season overall.
Johann Berg Gudmundsson also rattled the woodwork for the home side as his 25 yard free kick came off the bar soon afterwards while the Icelander’s cross was begging to be converted but appeared to have been deflected away from the onrushing James Tarkowski but while the Burnley players had tried to peg the Reds back they were unable to frustrate them with an equaliser.