Anthony Martial’s determined display ensures Manchester United defeat Burnley

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With Marcus Rashford rested and Zlatan Ibrahimovic ruled out for the rest of the season, Jose Mourinho gave under-fire forward Anthony Martial the perfect opportunity to impress on Sunday at Burnley.

Without a start since the beginning of the month, and openly criticised by the Manchester United manager for his lack of impact, Martial proved a point with an impressive display at Turf Moor.

Playing on the left-hand side of a United attacking three, he played with a level of intensity and desire in the final-third that hasn’t been seen for a while; whereas in his recent substitute cameos he’s looked a bit lost and devoid of ideas, his direct approach ran the Burnley back line ragged.

Spending a lot of his time hugging the touch-line to give United some width and to stretch the Clarets’ defence, he attempted ten take ons during the afternoon.

Despite only being successful on four occasions, it shows the tenacity and willingness that he had to drive towards the goal, and with more game-time he’ll begin to look like more of the finished article.

His play for United’s opener was scintillating, picking the ball up on the edge of his own area before breaking past the challenge of Joey Barton through pure pace and power, running through the middle before finding Ander Herrera, receiving the return ball and poking past ‘keeper Tom Heaton.

This signalled his 25^th goal on what was his 50^th Manchester United appearance and he wasn’t done there, breaking in behind the Burnley defence and forcing Heaton into a decent save before the ball found its way to the feet of Wayne Rooney, who stabbed home from close-range for his 251^st goal.

It’s hard to say it was intentional but the fact of the matter is that the French international claimed an assist to go with his goal, and he delivered the match-winning display Mourinho’s been wanting.

Although it transpires that it’s a goal that cost Manchester United £8.5 million due to a clause in his contract from Monaco, Mourinho won’t care one bit if it means his player is hitting top form again.

Much like his Manchester United teammate Rashford, scoring his first goal since February could be just the confidence boost that the 21-year-old needed to push on over the next six games, and with United’s squad really being tested by their Europa League exploits expect Martial to play a vital role.

With Jesse Lingard struggling to have any real impact on proceedings at Turf Moor, Martial’s display could also have given him a great chance of lining up in the crucial Manchester derby on Thursday.

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