POGBA’S PEARL SETS UNITED UP FOR ANFIELD
What is it that is said about titlewinning teams? What they do, where they do it, and what the weather is like on that particular day of the week?
If it’s true, then it is time to take Manchester United seriously. this was a big result, hard-fought and hard-won against Burnley, the Premier League’s awkward squad.
It is a victory that puts them top of the league in January for the first time since Sir alex Ferguson was manager and claimed his final league trophy in 2013. Now for Liverpool, at anfield. Yet United will take the competition’s only unbeaten away record to Merseyside and a coach-load of confidence to boot.
Just as it looked as if this game might peter out to a goalless draw, they found a way to win. that’s what champions do, and while Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was right to say nobody remembers January’s league leaders, this was still a significant statement.
a goalless draw would have given United top spot but it would have been a slender advantage, just a single point. to meet Liverpool ahead by three points is quite emphatic. It can’t just be good fortune. this is a United team who are getting it together. they have good players, too.
Such as Paul Pogba, who is finally looking less like the club’s problem child and more like one who can decide moments and matches. he did that beautifully last night, crowning a fine performance with the winning goal after 71 minutes.
he doesn’t get many these days, now Bruno Fernandes takes penalties, but this was a cracker. Marcus Rashford, who had done little to this point, crossed from the right and Pogba met it on the volley from outside the area, the ball emerging through a crowd of players, clipping Matt Lowton and appearing to take Burnley goalkeeper Nick Pope by surprise.
Could Pope have done better? the trajectory of the ball changed but it was still reasonably straight. Maybe give the benefit of the doubt to Pogba for the strike. Not only was the connection lovely, the technique to keep it down was pretty special. this was the work of the player it was thought United had recruited more than four years ago. the type who wins titles.
It was a deserved victory, too. Burnley came back into it late but barely mustered a shot on target before it became an emergency and United had the best of the chances. In stoppage time, anthony Martial was put clear by Edinson Cavani but hit a woeful shot straight at Pope, who actually saved it by putting his knees together. his finishing remains a weakness, whatever the songs say. More pleasing for Solskjaer would have been the robustness of his defence. It has to stay strong up here; that is why turf Moor has its place in English football folklore.
there is a reason the cold tuesday night in Burnley is the cliché of choice to describe a difficult away game, and in the first half at least this was the absolute embodiment of that. Relentlessly physical, frantic, taxing, tough.
But, importantly, it wasn’t just Burnley who were up for the scrap. the most spiteful challenge of the game came from Luke Shaw, who was booked and survived a review into a possible red card, and United very much gave as good as they got. the better teams usually do. It explains why United have been exceptional on the road. But it was hard. Fernandes hit the deck early, claiming a dig in the ribs from Erik Pieters, and Pogba chose not to take on Chris Wood in the air, preferring to collapse in a heap instead.
For those who remember Vic and Bob’s Big Night Out, it was the sort of inexplicable slow tumble perfected by Bob Mortimer, accompanied by the declaration, ‘ Oh Vic, I’ve fallen’. Rightly, referee Kevin Friend was having none of it.
he had enough on his hands dealing with an incident after 23 minutes. Shaw went through Johann Gudmundsson at one end, a foul that was missed by Friend, but left Burnley’s players livid. the ball played forward, Cavani sped away and was chopped by a desperate Robbie Brady outside the penalty area. Friend immediately awarded a yellow card, while the home side screamed at him to ‘Look at the f****** red at the other end.’ Prompted by the VaR, he did. ‘Checking possible red card,’ it was announced.
at first it was presumed to be a potential escalation for Brady, which would have been harsh given the passage of play began with a plain foul by a United player. the images on the screen, however, showed Friend studying Shaw’s offence first. If he made the right call there the rest of the play was moot. he did. he looked at Brady, too, just in case but pulled the play back for a Burnley free-kick and showed Shaw a yellow. Brady’s punishment would then have been
wiped. Yet if Shaw and United got away with one then, they looked hard done by soon after. In the 36th minute, Shaw struck a lovely deep ball which was met by Harry Maguire at the far post, powering a fine header past Pope.
In doing so, he came in from behind Pieters and flattened the Burnley man in the process. It was more roadkill than a foul, Pieters simply in the way as Maguire rose to meet the ball. In Stockley Park, however, it was seen differently and United’s lead was erased.
Burnley would have felt mildly aggrieved had they trailed at halftime. They had played well early on without forcing many chances. In the 21st minute, Ashley Barnes laid the ball off to Wood, whose shot was bravely blocked from close range by Eric Bailly. But United got closer. A Shaw square pass to Fernandes brought Pope into the action for the first time after 16 minutes, and when Nemanja Matic found Martial eight minutes later, the striker shot disappointingly wide. Far better from the Frenchman was an effort in the last minute of the half, a curling, dipping shot that Pope flicked over the bar.
United upped the pressure after half-time, as is so often the case, and should have taken the lead after 52 minutes. Fernandes found Martial on the right and his cross fell to Cavani, who shocked with a clumsy miscue in front of goal.
Fernandes then tried his luck on the hour, a tame shot that Pope looked to have covered all the way until it squirmed from his grasp and was gathered at the second attempt, testament to the unseen spin the finest players always put on the ball. BURNLEY (4-4-2): Pope 6; Lowton 5.5, Tarkowski 6.5, Mee 7, Pieters 6; Gudmundsson 6, Brownhill 6.5, Westwood 6.5, Brady 6 (McNeil 65min, 6); Barnes 7 (Rodriguez 88), Wood 6 (Vydra 80).
Subs not used: Norris, Bardsley, Long, Stephens, Benson, Cork. Booked: Westwood. Manager: Sean Dyche 6.
MANCHESTER UNITED (4-2-3-1): De Gea 6.5; Wan-Bissaka 6, Bailly 7, Maguire 6.5, Shaw 7; Matic 6.5, POGBA 8; Rashford 6.5 (Greenwood 80), Fernandes 7 (McTominay 89), Martial 6; Cavani 6.5. Subs not used: Henderson, Tuanzebe, Telles, Fred, Van de Beek, Mata, James. Scorer: Pogba 71. Booked: Shaw, Fernandes. Manager: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer 7. Referee: Kevin Friend 6.