Review & Ratings: Martial and Rashford scored in 2-0 victory over Burnley; Williams, Fred and James all played well in the victory

Manchester United beat Burnley 2-0 at Turf Moor in their final Premier League match of 2019, keeping their unbeaten record in their final match of each year since 2011. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has seen his side rise from eighth to fifth, just a point away from Chelsea, who face Arsenal on Sunday. It ends a busy month and year for United but January 2020 brings more of the same with United possibly playing eight times in the month.

United, despite the squad selected for this game, looked good at times, especially in attack. In the first half, Anthony Martial had two good shots on goal which were cleared from the line and Brandon Williams played in some good crosses, despite no attacking players being near them in the box. United opened the scoring in the 44th minute through Martial. Andreas Pereira won the ball slipping it to Martial to score.

Martial had the ball in the net against early in the second half but it was disallowed for a foul on the Burnley player in the box. Daniel James was utilising his pace throughout the match, beating his man most of the time. He drew a lot of fouls from his opposition, possibly because his pace beats them the majority of the time. Solskjaer made his first change after it seemed James could not continue but Jesse Lingard replaced Pereira.

United had an opportunity to score against in the final eight minutes of the match after James played Martial through to goal but the Burnley goalkeeper came off his line to cut the angle and the Frenchman passed to Lingard, who then tried to pass back to Martial which resulted in Burnley gaining possession once again. Luke Shaw replaced Martial at the death, possibly to waste a bit of time at the end of the game.

United had an unbelievable finish in the game with Williams, Lingard and Fred being booked in the final two minutes of added time. That led to United digging deep and finding their second goal through Marcus Rashford rounding Nick Pope and sealing the victory for United. It was a great finish to the match and an even better finish to the year. United now sit in fifth place, a point behind Chelsea who face Arsenal on Sunday.

[player_ratings id=”96282″]

Goals: Anthony Martial 44′, Marcus Rashford 90+5′

Assists: Andreas Pereira 44′, Daniel James 90+5

Manchester United: De Gea; Young, Lindelof, Maguire, Williams; Fred, Matic; James, Pereira (Lingard 73′), Rashford; Martial (Shaw 89′)

Substitutes Not Used: Romero; Jones, Wan-Bissaka; Mata; Greenwood

Bookings: Phil Bardsley 23′, Ben Mee 61′, Charlie Taylor 71′, Dwight McNeil 89′; Brandon Williams 90+2′, Jesse Lingard 90+4′, Fred 90+4′

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I support Manchester United, the greatest English football team to have ever existed. Bruno Fernandes is the latest in a long line of players with great ability to play for the club. I idolised Bryan Robson, David Beckham, Paul Scholes, and Eric Cantona growing up.