Saturday, 16th January 2010 – KO: 15:00

After a week of PIKS, bonds and other such financial nonsense that my brain is not equipped to deal with, it is nice to be able to write about the thing this is all about… twenty two men, one ball and a pitch. Football.

We come into this game with something of a score to settle with Burnley because they, of course, beat us at their place at the beginning of the season.

I must admit, I had Burnley relegated before a ball was even kicked this season but for a while there, it looked like they might just pull off Mission: Impossible. However, whilst they are not exactly on a losing run, they haven’t won a Premier League match since beating Hull in October and they now find themselves hovering just above the relegation zone and with the fixtures they have this month, they could actually find themselves in it before the month is out.

Tough times for them and now they have lost Owen Coyle, the manager who brought them into the Premier League.

The task of saving them now rests with Brian Laws who has plenty of experience in management but must be regarded as something of an unknown quantity at this level.

Still, if a trip to Old Trafford is a baptism of fire, it could also be seen as a chance to really get his tenure off to a flying start.

I think we can expect a solid and committed display from the Burnley players who will come into this game much as they went into the game against us at Turf Moor – nothing to lose and everything to gain.

I have a sneaky feeling that they might even receive something of a fillip from Fergie prior to this match as, massively important though this game is and nothing less than three points will be good enough, we also have the small matter of a Carling Cup tie in three days time against Manchester City.

The worry for me should Fergie decide to tinker with the team too much for this one is that his opinion of the players and the reality of the players has been quite out of sync on occasion this season (Leeds the other week, for example).

That said, his hands are still tied somewhat with the defensive positions but the good news is that Van Der Sar is back and could well make his re-appearance for this one.

Fletcher is obviously suspended following his sending off against Birmingham so he’ll be having an enforced rest anyway.

The situation with Dimitar Berbatov remains a bit of a mystery with Fergie saying today that the knee problem comes and goes, sometimes he feels it, sometimes he doesn’t. I took that to mean that when Berby has a poor game, he will be feeling it for the next match!

However, I do think that Fergie will play Owen and Rooney for this one but he might even want to see a bit more of Diouf whose debut turned a bit pear-shaped last week because of Fletcher’s sending off.

I’d like to think that Fergie will put out as close to a full-strength team as he can muster for this one and bring people off when the game is “safe” rather than the other way round. If he does this then we really should be beating Burnley quite comfortably.

I am not going to predict any kind of goal score for this one but one thing we have been doing consistently so far this season is outscoring our opponents on the corner front. Indeed, even the game at Turf Moor which we lost, we still outscored them 12-1 in terms of corners and something not too far away from that wouldn’t surprise me here.

The bet is 4 points Manchester United -5 Corners @ 1.9 with Paddy Power.

At the end of the first half which saw lots of possession for Manchester United but barely a shot worthy of the name, we were left quite frustrated as yet again and Burnley fans might have even begun to think that the double against the Champions was not the far-fetched dream it might have seemed six months ago.

Truth be told, for all our possession, it was Burnley who had the best opportunity to score in the first half.

I have read a few reports on this match which have said that Nani (who received a surprise recall from Fergie for this one) was disappointing. Well, I don’t know about that. I have been left far more frustrated and disappointed with Nani on other occasions than I was here today. He put in a defensive shift, he looked to take his man on, he put in some good crosses, he even had a decent bicycle shot saved in the closing minutes of the first half (probably our best attempt in the first half) and on this evidence, he still has something to offer the team.

Part of the problem is that both Nani and Valencia operating down the wings put in some good crosses but no one was able to convert them.

Rooney, for all his qualities cannot head the ball and if he could, he would probably score ten more goals every season.

Berbatov (who partnered Rooney up front from the start of this one) is very disappointing in the air for such a tall man.

Anyway, the second half started much the same as the first with good possession for United but Burnley, if anything, grew in confidence and had a great chance around the hour mark but Nugent hit just wide when he should have hit the target.

This seemed to galvanise Burnley who came out a little more in an effort to trade with United blow for blow.

Three minutes later, Berbatov scored a great goal with his left foot having missed an effort earlier in the game when it looked easier to score. It was a great burst from Berby and a great finish. Now if only we could see a bit more of that from him!

This prompted Fergie to bring off Carrick and replace him with Anderson (perhaps in a nod towards the City game).

Five minutes later, Berby had another shot which was saved and from the resulting rebound, Rooney leapt onto the ball, steadied himself and fired the ball low into the corner of the net.

2-0 and finally we had a bit of breathing space.

A couple of minutes later, Fergie made a double change by bringing off Rooney and Berbatov to be replaced by Owen and Diouf. Has he finally got again the four quality strikers he has always wanted?

The closing fifteen minutes were largely uneventful as Burnley seemed to concede that this was going to be their tenth away defeat from eleven and United were largely happy to play within themselves.

After around 82 minutes Man Utd old boy Chris Eagles was subbed (to warm applause from all sections of the ground, might I add) in order for Robbie Blake to come on (who, you probably remember, scored the thunderbolt which beat us earlier in the season).

Within seconds, Burnley hit the post with a header which just seemed to remind United that the final whistle hadn’t been blown yet.

Finally, with the clock ticking away into time added on, Valencia played a long ball over the top which is obviously the type of ball that the fleet-footed Diouf thrives on. He sprung the offside trap and it was a race to the ball between himself and the Burnley keeper. Diouf won the race and won the ball bravely with his head to loop it over the advancing Jensen.

3-0 to United.

All in all, something of a flattering scoreline for us. We dominated possession but we had a couple of decent saves from Van Der Sar and some poor finishing from Burnley to thank for some of that.

After a week of doom and gloom, however, this was just the kind of boost the United faithful needed.

Incidentally, United won the corner count 7-1 so the bet won too!