Wednesday, 19th Aug 2009 – KO: 19:45

And so Manchester United become the first team to play Burnley at Turf Moor in the Premier League and it promises to be something of a rude awakening for some as I doubt prawn sandwiches are even on the menu.

An opening day fixture away to Stoke was probably the best Burnley could have hoped for to get their Premier League adventure underway but they were still soundly beaten 2-0 despite giving it a very good go in the second half.

I have Burnley relegated all hands down this season and the only thing that could give them a chance of staying up was to get a few points from the opening fixtures. Unfortunately, I can’t see them getting anything here tonight.

It won’t be an easy ride for United, our game against Birmingham showed that whilst we are creating chances, we still seem to be making very hard work of putting them away – even Rooney needed two stabs to net his winner.

For Burnley, this game will be like a Cup Final. They will be desperate to show that they belong in the Premier League so expect a full-blooded performance from them.

It must also be said that their home form was very good last season and they won 14 and lost just 4. Manager Owen Coyle will be hoping that they can carry some of this form into their Premier League campaign.

We have our defensive problems going into this game and the back four is likely to contain just Evra in his recognised position. The reliable John O’Shea and Wes Brown are likely to take up two slots but I am not sure of the situation with Jonny Evans at the time of writing. He limped off on Saturday but if he is fit for tonight, then that will be a boost.

Attacking-wise, Fergie has plenty of options and is bound to use them to the fullest if the score stays 0-0 for too long.

I can’t see that though. The way we played at times against Birmingham on Saturday and the number of chances we created tells me that we are raring to go and defending our Premier League title is very much on the agenda this season.

We have already seen our main challenger Chelsea take six points from their opening two games and we need to do the same.

As I say, it won’t be a walk in the park here tonight and Burnley will do everything to prevent us from settling but it is nothing we have not had to cope with a hundred times before and the outcome is often the same.

The bookies think there will be several goals in this game and I am tempted to agree. We should win the game but a goal for Burnley wouldn’t be a great surprise either.

So, I think I will go for the OVER bet on this one.

3 Points on OVER 2.5 Goals @ 1.83 with Bet365

Erm… where to start…

Not there… try again…

This must go down as one of the most humiliating defeats in the history of Sir Alex Ferguson as manager.

We’ve been on the end of shock results in the past but this one must be right up there.

It wasn’t enough for Fergie that we started this match with a far from first choice defence, he had to tinker with the midfield at the same time.

A midfield of Giggs, Park, Carrick and Anderson should have been good enough on paper but on the field against a committed Burnley, it just wasn’t.

You can’t deny Burnley their win. Robbie Blake’s strike was an absolute beauty.

But we were given a golden chance to equalise with a penalty but it was missed.

This in itself is a talking point. On the pitch at the time were Rooney and Owen. One is set for his 100th Manchester United goal and one is set for his first United goal but neither stepped forward and it was left to Carrick.

I have no problem with Carrick taking a penalty, he normally buries them, but I just thought it odd.

As the game wore on, I felt certain that we would score at some point and again, the overall stats suggest that we peppered the Burnley goal but we just couldn’t put it away.

I think some big decisions await Fergie after this. A midfield of Giggs, Carrick, Anderson and Park sounds decent enough but none of them is the leader who can take a game by the scruff of the neck and carry it forward.

Giggs tried to do it all alone in the first half but it wasn’t enough.

As for the forward positions, Fergie started with Owen and Rooney, took off Owen and brought on Berbatov and none of them quite seemed to know what to do with each other and on more than one occasion a move broke down due to a complete lack of understanding.

It wasn’t like Burnley played us off the park here today, they gave the ball away time and again but we just didn’t seem to know how to take it from Point A to the back of the net over and over again.

A very, very bad day at the office which could be forgiven midway through the season but after just two games, when you would think everyone is switched on and raring to make history, this performance simply wasn’t good enough.