Should Fergie worry after Burnley defeat?

It is true that Manchester United rarely start the season well and will no doubt be there or thereabouts, as usual, at the end of the season. It is equally true that Burnley, despite this great result, will probably struggle against relegation all season. Having said all that, games like the Burnley against Manchester United game on Wednesday evening are the type of thing that make us all love the game of football so much.

Fantastic

It was real David and Goliath stuff as the champions travelled to take on the Premier League newcomers. Surely even a fantastic Burnley performance together with a dire one from United would still not be enough for the minnows to get a result.

Even Burnley manager Owen Coyle was realistic enough to say,

“I think anybody who looked at our set of fixtures would have thought that Burnley will have zero points after five matches.”

As it turned out, United had nineteen shots to Burnley’s nine. United had thirteen corners to Burnley’s one. United had an 80% passing success rate to Burnley’s 70%. United had 67% of possession to Burnley’s 33%. United had 58% of the territorial advantage to Burnley’s 42%. United had one penalty and Burnley didn’t.

Predicted

All of that could have predicted, but the one thing that couldn’t have been was Burnley’s 1-0 win against all the odds.

Owen Coyle was humble about his team’s victory but ecstatic as well,

“I thought Wayne Rooney and Ryan Giggs were just outstanding for them tonight but our players went toe-to-toe and tried to match up.”

The winning goal was a stunning volley from veteran forward Robbie Blake that left Ben Foster with no chance whatever,

“Robbie Blake’s goal was terrific and a fitting to win any game. He has that in his locker. We encourage him to be positive.”

United’s assistant manager Mike Phelan was not happy after the game,

“It was a bad performance in a game we should have won comfortably with the chances and possession we had. Fate’s fate, you can’t deny them their victory. Their players have worked their socks off and their fans were fantastic. It was great occasion for them. We were too frivolous with our chances, taking too many touches rather than shooting quickly and in the second half we got hurried in our passes.”

If Mike Phelan wasn’t happy I can only begin to guess at the amount of steam coming out of Sir Alex’s ears at the end of the game! Some people say he has mellowed but I doubt whether that would have been evident after this.

Style

Manchester United will have seen Chelsea play really well at Sunderland and pick up six points out of six, Arsenal put six goals past Everton and Liverpool recover from their first day defeat with an emphatic victory over Stoke. They will also have seen Manchester City win well at Blackburn and Tottenham open the season in fantastic style.

It is early days but I think Sir Alex might just be a little worried.

Any United fans worried, or are you still confident of four titles in a row?