Burnley v Manchester United: Premier League – live!

Burnley had a decent first half, and an excellent final 10 minutes, but Manchester United’s dominance of the majority of the second period, when Pogba and Fernandes emerged as the game’s outstanding influences, allowed them to seal victory. I suppose Burnley should probably have had a penalty for a Maguire handball, but then Maguire’s disallowed first-half header should have stood, so it’s all good.

90+8 mins: It’s all over! Manchester United have won, and are three points clear at the top of the table!

90+6 mins: Now Matic is down and in apparent discomfort. Play continues.

90+5 mins: Burnley pump the ball into the penalty area, McTominay (a recent replacement for Fernandes) heads it straight to Vydra, and he chests down and blasts over!

90+4 mins: Martial limps from the field, having possibly pulled a muscle as he tried to chase down the loose ball after his shot is saved. Tuanzebe comes on for the final seconds.

90+4 mins: Martial misses the chance to seal it! United break, and Martial leaves the ball to run on to Cavani, who loops a first-time pass back towards the Frenchman, who shoots rather sadly, straight at Pope.

90+2 mins: Mee and Shaw end up on the ground, both holding their heads, and play is paused while they’re checked out.

90+1 mins: Nearly an equaliser! McNeil’s cross comes off Bailly’s head and bounces towards Tarkowski, but it’s just behind him and he can’t divert it goalwards!

90+1 mins: Rodriguez has come on for Barnes, and we’re into four minutes of stoppage time.

88 mins: The corner eventually falls to Vydra, who blasts over the bar. There’s then a delay while the VAR checks for a possible handball on Maguire, and I’ve no idea how he got away with that one. As he jumps with Bailly and Mee his seems an entirely arm-based challenge, and though he didn’t know much about it the ball definitely hit an elbow.

87 mins: A good dummy in the build-up and a good first-time shot from Vydra, but it deflects off Bailly and wide. Burnley have finally woken up here, and worked out that they can worry United.

85 mins: Now the ball drops to Brownhill on the edge of the area, but he slices his half-volley wide.

84 mins: Burnley find Vydra with a long ball, but Vydra is facing the wrong way and can’t find an elegant way to turn around, so he loses the ball instead.

82 mins: Pogba’s pass somehow reaches Martial, who turns goalwards and looks certain to extend United’s lead. But he takes an unnecessary touch, and Tarkowski makes an excellent if slightly desperate challenge, and Burnley stay in the game.

74 mins: Another goal has gone in at Molineux, and Everton lead once again, this time through Michael Keane.

72 mins: A bit fortunate that, in that Pope would surely have saved the shot had it not hit Lowton, but the pressure had been building and Rashford did well to bide his time on the flank rather than just send in a hopeful cross, instead waiting for the right moment, the right run, and the right man.

Rashford crosses from the right, the ball landing on Pogba’s toe, just inside the penalty area, and he hits a handsome volley that flies low towards goal, flicks Lowton’s calf and deflects through Pope’s legs and in!

69 mins: A United attack ends with Pogba and then Cavani going over but the referee ignoring both incidents. Burnley clear the ball up to Barnes, who then also goes over and is so sure he’s been fouled he grabs the ball on his way down. The referee finally gives a free kick, for handball.

67 mins: The corner is weakly semi-cleared by Lowton to Cavani, who takes a nice touch inside to open up a shooting chance but then curls his effort wide with his left foot.

66 mins: Rashford drives down the right before blasting in a cross towards nobody in particular, which goes behind off a defender.

65 mins: We enter the substitution phase of the evening, with Dwight McNeil replacing Brady.

62 mins: Westwood trips Fernandes, who is spending more time in pockets of space between Burnley’s lines and therefore more influential, and is booked.

60 mins: Fernandes has the ball 25 yards out. He wants to find a pass, but everyone in front of him, from both sides, is standing still, so eventually he just has a shot, which Pope saves.

59 mins: United are well on top here, but not finding the killer ball into the area, or the killer run that enables that ball.

56 mins: United have supped their special tea at the interval, and are an improved team since the break. Fernandes lashes a low shot too close to Pope from 23 yards.

52 mins: A good, fast United attack ends with Martial passing inside for Cavani, who mishits his shot when well placed!

51 mins: Barnes has a phenomenally rubbish shot, which barely has enough power to reach the goalline but does in the end go out for a goal kick.

50 mins: Dale Johnson, who has his finger on the VAR pulse, has an update on the first-half VARfest:

United will be relieved that the referee is feeling lenient (so didn’t send off Shaw), but aggrieved that he’s been too firm (so disallowed Maguire’s header), and also annoyed that he’s feeling lenient (so didn’t give that edge-of-the-area foul on Shaw). This must be confusing for them.

“Good evening Simon,” writes Simon McMahon. “You know I’m not normally one to take an interest in the Scottish football scene but, in the absence of any goal action so far, Lawrence Shankland’s strike for Dundee United against St Johnstone tonight was, well, not very Scottish. Imagine David Beckham against Wimbledon, but better. Like Paul Scholes, I suppose.”

You be the judge:

45+5 mins: An underhit Wan-Bissaka cross is followed by an overhit Fernandes cross, and that’s half time! No goals, but plenty of intrigue.

45+3 mins: Fernandes gets booked for a foul on United’s right flank.

45+2 mins: Shaw runs at the Burnley box and is fouled as he reaches it, but the ball rolls to a teammate and the referee allows play to progress for the second or two it takes for nothing much to happen. I thought he could have called play back for the free kick, but he decides against it.

45+1 mins: Into stoppage time we go, and there will be four minutes of it. It starts with a lovely curling, dipping Martial shot which is tipped over by Pope.

43 mins: “I thought we were told that in the cases of foul play, that VAR could only be used to review possible red cards,” says Paul Keane, “so a yellow card is not an option. I’m not saying the yellow card is not the just outcome, but the process of getting there seems to be inconsistent with what we have been told.” VAR can’t deliberately check a booking, but it can go back to see if an offence was committed in the build-up to a key decision – a goal or sending-off – and I suppose a yellow card can be awarded if one is picked up.

39 mins: A United corner. Barnes is marking Bailly, and as the ball is about to be taken he goes down. The first corner is very good, dipping dangerously towards the near post; the retaken corner is not so great. It remains goalless.