It has been an eventful and special year for both United and the rest of football England, and it is Ralf Rangnick’s men who get the honor of playing 2021’s very last Premier League match, when Burnley visit Old Trafford.
No matter what happens at Drømmenes Teater on New Year’s Eve, it is clear that United are entering the new year with a significantly worse starting point in the league than was the case just over a year ago.
At that time, an Ole Gunnar Solskjær-led United was second on the table, with three points up to Liverpool and one hanging game to spare. A three-point win over Burnley on Thursday night will probably not hold more than a sixth place over the New Year, 19 points behind league leader and city rival City, who admittedly have played two more games.
But if United are to get past Tottenham before the New Year’s rockets take off, Sean Dyche’s men must be beaten first.
Rangnick makes several changes to the team that played a draw against Newcastle on Christmas Day. Among other things, the German changes back duo. Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Luke Shaw replace the Portuguese-speaking duo consisting of Alex Telles and Diogo Dalot.
Eric Bailly replaces Raphaël Varane, while Nemanja Matic replaces Fred.
Further down the field, Jadon Sancho comes in for a suspended Bruno Fernandes, while Edinson Cavani forms a leading pair together with Cristiano Ronaldo. This means that Marcus Rashford has to settle for a bench seat.
In the hours before the shows, speculated local newspapers were published Manchester Evening News if Donny van de Beek wanted to steal the place from Mason Greenwood, but the young boy keeps the place in the eleven.
Here are the teams:
United: De Gea; Wan-Bissaka, Bailly, Maguire, Shaw; McTominay, Matic; Greenwood, Sancho; Ronaldo, Cavani.
Benches: Henderson, Telles, Dalot, Varane, Fred, Lingard, Van de Beek, Elanga, Rashford.
Burnley: Hennessey; Lowton, Tarkowski, Mee, Taylor; Gudmundsson, Cork, Westwood, McNeil, Lennon; Wood.
Benches: Norris, Collins, Bardsley, Pieters, Stephens, Thomas, Vydra.
The match kicks off at 21.15 Scandinavian time. TV 2 Sport Premium / Play shows the match in Norway, while V Sport Premium / Viaplay shows it in Sweden. In Denmark, the match is broadcast on TV3 + / Viaplay.
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