Brilliant Fernandes finish delivers much-needed win for Man Utd at Burnley
Erik ten Hag handed Hannibal Mejbri the second PL start of his career and the Tunisia international looked bright early on, slipping the ball through for Marcus Rashford who hit the side netting inside the opening minute.
Burnley’s own exciting talents also made an impression, as Luca Koleosho’s electric play lured Diogo Dalot into picking up a yellow card, Aaron Ramsey linked play well and Zeki Amdouni forced a strong save from André Onana Onana before hitting the post from another opportunity.
There was a blow for the Clarets as Jóhann Berg Guðmundsson was forced off through injury.
It looked like that had been compounded when Jonny Evans headed home on his first Red Devils start since March 2015, although Rasmus Højlund had leaned into James Trafford while in an offside position.
Burnley had largely continued to give as good as they got after that scare but still found themselves behind before the break, as Evans’ fantastic ball forward was met by an equally sublime volley from Bruno Fernandes.
Højlund was still left frustrated after the break, as Dalot’s low ball came agonisingly close to finding the Dane before Ameen Al-Dakhil did superbly to prevent Rashford’s knockdown from reaching him.
Burnley were enjoying plenty of possession but lacked cutting edge at times with in-form striker Lyle Foster suspended, leading to Vincent Kompany making a triple change as the final quarter-hour approached.
That almost paid immediate dividends as Jacob Brrun Larsen latched onto Al-Dakhil’s ball behind, but the winger couldn’t convincingly control it and Evans slid in to deny Jay Rodriguez.
Even with Rashford and Højlund both seeing late efforts blocked, United controlled the final stages well to end a run of three consecutive defeats across all competitions with the help of their first clean sheet since the opening day.
Burnley, meanwhile, lost a fourth consecutive home match for the first time since 2020/21 and have the leakiest defence in the league so far this term.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Jonny Evans (Manchester United)
