Burnley 0-2 Manchester United, 5 Talking Points

#3 The Real Drama Unfolds in the Second Half:

Rashford was visibly frustrated

United went into the dugout with a cushion of two goals’ lead, courtesy of an impressive brace by Romelu Lukaku. The Belgian hammered home a thumping header in the first half and scored from close range at the brink of halftime too.

Both of these goals were pretty important, and United did not seem to lower the intensity or lose the momentum even in the second portion of the game. This was until Alexis Sanchez was taken off for Marcus Rashford at the hour mark. The Chilean had worked his socks off; regularly pressing high up on the pitch and tracking back to revive the possession back.

Sanchez provided a sumptuous cross for Lukaku too and was quite threatening with his movement and clever one-twos with Jesse Lingard in the earlier stage of the match. However, the former Arsenal man had returned from an injury, and it was necessary to preserve him, also because of the amount of work-rate that he did during his stay on the pitch.

Rashford earned a penalty, which Paul Pogba stepped up to take. The Frenchman is United’s designated penalty-taker, but it is notable to observe that Lukaku was on a hat-trick at that point of time, and it would have only been fair from the Frenchman’s part to let the Belgian score from the spot-kick. More importantly, Pogba failed to score from his spot-kick, and that injected a session of panic on the field.

Rashford was sent off for an atrocious head-butt on Bardsley, and Lukaku missed a sitter after dribbling past Joe Hart. He couldn’t score from an open goal and missed an opportunity to complete his first hat-trick for United.

Moreover, Rashford’s incidence was more glaring as such, as the lad should have maintained his composure, but he now faces three matches on the sidelines.