Jesse Lingard gets Manchester United out of jail but Burnley draw concedes more ground in Premier League title race

Manchester United 2 Burnley 2: United forward strikes twice to cancel out goals from Ashley Barnes and Steven Defour but City will go 15 points clear if they beat Newcastle on Wednesday

Jesse Lingard's second-half brace spared Manchester United's blushes (Getty)

When Jesse Lingard’s stoppage-time equaliser crossed the line, it was a celebrated like a winner by every player in a red shirt. A few minutes later though, when the final whistle sounded, reality set in. Those same players realised that a hard-earned point at home to Burnley is not, by this club’s standards, enough.

It could easily have much worse. Sean Dyche’s visitors led from the second minute until stoppage time here after Ashley Barnes bundled an opener home and Steven Defour doubled their lead with a fabulous free-kick hit from all of 30 yards. At half-time, given this team's ability to dig in and defend, a famous three points seemed to be heading back to east Lancashire.

In the end, Lingard's second-half brace salvaged a draw for United. The manner of it made it feel like a win. The context makes it more akin to a defeat. Manchester City can go 15 points clear of their neighbours and nearest challengers on Wednesday night. Such a lead is surely insurmountable.

Burnley's opener was the fourth goal Jose Mourinho's side have conceded from a set piece this month alone and, as with City’s dead-ball goals in the derby earlier this month, Romelu Lukaku was at fault. The Belgian first ducked underneath Johan Berg Gudmundsson’s free-kick then failed to clear his lines in the ensuing goalmouth scramble. Barnes was one of several players struggling to bring the ball under control but when it ricocheted into his path for a second time, he made no mistake, striking cleanly past David De Gea from inside the six-yard box.

The Old Trafford crowd expected an onslaught to follow but they were made to wait for one, with De Gea called into action for a second time before the Burnley goalkeeper Nick Pope could be tested. After a flowing move from the visitors through midfield, Scott Arfield attempted to convert another Gudmundsson cross with a deft chip. De Gea, backpedalling, only denied him with his fingertips.

At the other end of the field, Lukaku and Zlatan Ibrahimovic were starting up front together for the first time. It told. The pair made much the same runs into the same channels and their struggles encapsulated a team lacking in rhythm. When United’s first significant effort came, it was not through either of reputable frontline but from left-back Luke Shaw, who chanced his arm with a shot from outside the area. Pope parried it clear.


 Burnley celebrate after Barnes opens the scoring 
 (Getty)

By now, after those early forays forward, Dyche’s side had settled down, bedded in and were ready to battle to protect their slender lead. Not even Dyche would have expected a second for his side, which only made Defour’s spectacular strike all the more breathtaking.

After Ashley Young's foul on Arfield, the Belgian midfielder placed the subsequent free-kick over the wall perfectly into top left-hand corner of De Gea’s goal. It was the first time United’s ‘keeper had conceded from outside the area all season and a strike that showed why Defour, a player of both silk and steel, was once courted by Sir Alex Ferguson.

If there was one positive for United from this second strike, it was that it provoked a better response than the first. Burnley's two-goal cyshion would only have lasted a few minutes had Ben Mee not shown the defensive awareness that characterises this side by positioning himself behind Pope and on the line to brilliantly block a goal-bound effort from Marcus Rashford.

Defour celebrates after scoring to put Burnley 2-0 up (Getty)

Mourinho had to change something. The Ibrahimovic-Lukaku experiment was abandoned, with the former sacrificed, and Lingard was introduced as one of two half-time changes.

The in-form but much-maligned academy graduate almost made an immediate impact but, again like in the derby, an opposition goalkeeper denied the Stretford End a goal with his face. Pope knew little about Lingard’s strike from point-blank range as it hit him square in the mouth and was understandably relieved to see it deflect off him and onto the top of the crossbar.

He was not so lucky a few minutes later as Lingard, undeterred by a poor miss, found the response United needed. Showing the kind of invention his team-mates had lacked in the first half, the substitute back-heeled Ashley Young’s cross around his marker Kevin Long with just enough curve and momentum on the ball to arc it around a stretching Pope and into the far corner.

Lingard fires in United's equaliser to split the points (Getty)

United rallied and began their search for an equaliser but found Dyche's dogged defensive unit to difficult to break down. The match devolved into the type of scrappy, cagey affair that Burnley often thrive on. As the minutes ticked by, it became clear that Dyche’s side simply were not going to give up any clear-cut chances. If an equaliser was to be found, it would be an ugly one.

Sure enough, Lingard’s late leveller was hit through a mass of bodies after a brief game of pinball in the Burnley penalty area. Few of those celebrating wildly around Old Trafford cared. Lingard and his team-mates were jubilant but a few minutes later, the final whistle sounded and their shoulders slumped. Not a point gained, but two dropped.

Manchester United: De Gea; Young, Jones, Rojo (Mkhitaryan 45), Shaw; Matic, Pogba; Mata, Ibrahimovic (Lingard 45), Rashford; Lukaku.

Substitutes not used: Romero, Lindelof, Blind, Herrera, Tuanzebe.

Burnley: Pope; Bardsley, Mee, Long, Taylor; Gudmundsson, Defour (Vokes 67), Cork, Arfield; Hendrick; Barnes (Walters 81).

Substitutes not used: Lindegaard, Lowton, Marney, Westwood, Wells.

Referee: M Atkinson (West Yorkshire)

Attendance: 75,046