United Sees Off Spirited Brunley

Manchester United 3 - Burnley 0
Scorers
Manchester United: Berbatov (64), Rooney (69), Diouf (90)

Team: Van der Sar, Brown, Evans, Neville, Evra, Scholes, Carrick (Anderson 65), Nani, Valencia, Rooney (Diouf 73), Berbatov (Owen 73)

Once again the scoreline flatters the Champions. We were decidedly the poorer team until Berbatov's deflected strike in the 64th minute. Througout the game, Burnley were threatening with ex-United player, Eagles, leading the counter attack and really had their finishing been anywhere spot on, we would have been staring down a barrel of a gun.

But as luck would have it, we scored with probably our first shot on target. A thru pass by Rooney, and Berbatov's cruel deflection dented all Burnley's hopes of an unlikely scoreline at Old Trafford.

From then on, Burnley crumbled in a heap and Rooney found himself on the scoresheet as well after Jensen spilled Berbatov's strike. Sensing the game was well and truely won, Ferguson opted to rest both his frontmen and giving Owen (finally) and youngster, Diouf, a run out.

Diouf promptly went on to score a late goal to put us 3 up, and his acrobatic celebrations put the icing on a scoreline that never looked this emphatic during half time.

We still need a playmaker in the most dire sense. There was plenty of good passing all the way until the Burnley penalty box, where we completely ran out of ideas on how to break a resolute defense down. Scholes and Carrick are awesome at making the lateral pass, but when it comes to going forward, both failed terribly.

Nani, who was given a start, seemed to have played his way out of the team. He was almost completely useless in the game, bar a spectacular overhead kick in the first half. It was his only highlight in the game, one which he would probably want to forget for all the piss poor decisions he made on the left wing.

Valencia was much better, seeing alot of the ball on the right, but he continues to hug the right flank tightly, a bit too tightly for my personal liking. He's play is almost one dimensional, taking the ball on the right and crossing it with too much regularity. It would have been much better if he would have taken on his defender once in a while just to mix the play up abit.

Berbatov was a bit lucky to get the goal from a tight angle. Up to that point it looked like he couldn't score in a brothel. As for his partner, Rooney, well.....he's the only good thing we have at the moment. As with Ronaldo last couple of years, we're going as far as Rooney carries us.

The defenders weren't much better. We may have kept a clean sheet, but everyone was at sixes and sevens when Burnley counter-attacked. We could have been dead and buried before Berbatov's strike.

As for the substitutes, Anderson did marginally well enough when he was on the pitch, but really didn't make any significant contributions, much like the player he replaced, Carrick. Owen was just simply anonymous.

And what can I say about Diouf...hmmm.... Let's just say he's young, new and enthusiastic. He puts himself into good positions and you can see why he's found his way into the team so quickly. Not to mention the goal was pretty high quality, showing plenty of composure with a looping header over an oncoming keeper at the edge of the box. Is he going to be our new Ole, well, the ingredients are there, but it's going to take more than a goal and a game to make a hasty judgement. The jury's still out on that one.

All in all, we got the 3 points, and that's what that matters. To be frank, I'm not looking forward to the midweek clash against City in the League Cup.