ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE - Burnley 1 Manchester Utd 0:THE SEASON is not even a week old and already it is doubtful whether there will be a more astonishing result over the next nine months.
Burnley, out of the top flight since 1976, can reflect on a famous evening whereas this acute embarrassment for Manchester United offers irrefutable evidence that the grieving process for Cristiano Ronaldo has hit them hard.
Alex Ferguson’s team were shockingly bad, with Michael Owen’s body language saying everything as he was substituted after 63 minutes of personal misery, though it would be unfair to dwell too much on United’s shortcomings if it deflects any of the praise away from Burnley. They needed their goalkeeper, Brian Jensen, to make some brilliant saves but this result was no fluke, Robbie Blake’s goal bringing Owen Coyle’s side a victory that generations of their supporters could once only dream of.
United will look back with anguish about the moment when Jensen saved Michael Carrick’s penalty shortly before half-time but Burnley showed everything that will be needed if they are to survive this season: guts, passion and, yes, no shortage of skill.
Ferguson was missing three-quarters of his usual defence and Burnley, not just tipped for relegation but widely backed to collect the wooden spoon as the Premier League’s bottom club come next May, must have been pleasantly surprised about the alacrity with which they took advantage of the absence of key players such as Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic.
United’s was a raw and improvisational back four and by the time Blake’s unstoppable volley left Turf Moor reverberating with joy Steven Fletcher, the €3.5 million recruit from Hibernian, had squandered a presentable chance to score on his home debut. Martin Paterson was then denied by Ben Foster after getting behind an increasingly hesitant and uncertain defence but United, playing with an unusual lack of fluency, never cleared their lines and their dithering was punished.
Patrice Evra’s unconvincing attempt to head away Stephen Jordan’s cross dropped invitingly for Blake and if there was one player in claret and blue who the crowd would have wanted to see pulling back his right foot, it was this man.
The finish was about as good as it gets, combining equal measures of power and precision, and the ball was still rising as it hit the roof of Foster’s net.
The opening 45 minutes made depressing viewing for United’s supporters, and those who long for Ferguson to be vindicated in his signing of Owen, not least the watching England manager, Fabio Capello. The striker had two chances in this period but barely got a touch of the ball on either occasion. These might be the embryonic stages of his United career but his confidence is already looking brittle and it was strange that when United were awarded their 43rd-minute penalty he was not assigned the role previously filled by the previous wearer of the number seven shirt, Cristiano Ronaldo.
Carrick, it could be argued, is a magnificent striker of the ball but not on this occasion. His shot was aimed too close to Jensen, who dived to his right to get the stadium shaking with euphoria once again. Tyrone Mears was first to the rebound to clear any lingering danger. The penalty had been given for Blake’s late, sliding challenge on Evra and, even if Owen did not fancy it, it was peculiar, too, that Wayne Rooney should not have taken the chance to score his 100th United goal. Rooney was too often on the periphery of the game as United found it difficult to spark without Ronaldo.
It was startling to see the champions look so laboured, so rudderless. At one point early in the second half Owen could not even make a simple pass to Evra without leaving it short enough for a Burnley player to intercept. Yet again, we saw this once-lethal footballer waving an apologetic hand. For all United’s deficiencies, however, it still needed Jensen to be in inspirational form, the Dane keeping out Park Ji-Sung and Ryan Giggs as United realised they were supposed to be the better side.
GuardianService
BURNLEY:Jensen, Mears, Bikey, Carlisle, Jordan, Blake, McCann, Alexander (Gudjonsson 73), Elliott, Steven Fletcher (Thompson 81), Paterson (Eagles 73). Subs not used: Penny, Kalvenes, McDonald, Guerrero. Booked: Paterson, Blake.
MAN UTD:Foster, O'Shea, Jonathan Evans, Brown (Neville 71), Evra, Park, Anderson (Valencia 59), Carrick, Giggs, Owen (Berbatov 63), Rooney. Subs not used: Kuszczak, Scholes, Gibson, De Laet. Booked: Rooney.
Referee:Alan Wiley (Staffordshire).
