Manchester United broke their losing streak away from Burnley.
Jonny Evans was the king of the pitch in the Burnley win. PDO
The crisis club Manchester United had started its season in a historically bad way.
It had conceded at least three goals in three consecutive matches for the first time since 1978. Needless to say, United had lost every one of them.
On Saturday, it tried to end its losing streak as a guest of Burnley, a club in its financial region.
United manager Erik ten Hag had had to scrape from the bottom of the vat in order to assemble a tolerable opening assembly. It was telling that it was on the sales list all summer Scott McTominay took his place in midfield.
Evans in the opening
However, the Scot was not the biggest surprise in the opening. The Dutch pilot named a 35-year-old returnee as the topper by Jonny Evans.
The Irishman is of course a long-time United player. He joined the club’s junior mill as a nine-year-old in Belfast in 1997 and was first in the opening of the representative team in September 2008.
But Evans’ level was deemed insufficient in 2015, when he was sold to West Bromwich. This summer, he was completely left without a contract and was allowed to train with the under-21s of his breeding club.
Against that background, Evans’ place in the opener was a surprise.
But when the game got underway, the veteran was more than the man on the spot. First, in the 25th minute, he nicked by Sergio Reguilón corner kick into the net.
The story continues after the picture
Bruno Fernandes (right) scored a wonderful winning goal. PDO
However, the video judges were surprised by Rasmus Højlund disturbed Burnley goalkeeper James Trafford in the offside position, so the hit was erased from the scoreboard.
If the goal had been allowed, Evans would have set a new record. Almost eight years have passed since his last United goal.
Pass for the winning goal
However, the defender was not frustrated by the Var verdict. At the very end of the opening period, he sent a fine 40-meter vertical pass Bruno Fernandes to the running line. The captain let the ball bounce once and then fired a key half-volley into the back bottom corner.
Evans was substituted in the 89th minute. He replaced him on the field Sofyan Amrabat made his United debut at the same time.
No more goals were seen. With their 1–0 away win, United rose to eighth in the league.
– This was a difficult place to come. We had to be at our best, Evans said after the game.
– It was a great pass. I knew he could do it and I was just waiting for the ball, Fernandes praised next door.
The Portuguese was also chosen as the best player of the match. He immediately handed the award to Evans.
Burnley, who collected only one draw point, dropped to jumbo place.