GOOD EVENING FROM TURF MOOR
Welcome to our live coverage of the Premier League match between Burnley and Manchester United.
The stakes are high in this all-Lancashire affair with one club still battling it out at the bottom, and the other harbouring unexpected title hopes.
It’s the Clarets’ first league game of this new year, and they’ll be hoping to start 2021 in the same manner that they ended 2020.
After an awful opening to the season in which they found themselves bottom after losing five of the first, Sean Dyche’s men are now on a run of three wins in five.
And in climbing the table, they are slowly rebuilding their fortress at Turf Moor. Unbeaten in four at home, another success this evening will move them a comfortable eight points clear of the dropzone.
However, Charlie Taylor, Kevin Long, Jay Rodriguez and Dwight McNeill are all doubts which may again leave the Burnley boss turning to youngsters in order to boost one of the smallest squads in the division.
Anything other than a home win, and Manchester United will lead the Premier League after as many as 17 games for the first time since 2012.
Their credentials away from home are good too. Despite drawing at Leicester on Boxing Day, United are the only side unbeaten on the road in the top-flight.
The Red Devils have injury concerns of their own to contend with, especially after Eric Bailly bowed out at the weekend with a neck problem; the defender has since joined Victor Lindelof, Luke Shaw and Paul Pogba in the treatment room.
But Edinson Cavani is back from his ban should Ole Gunnar Solskjaer wish to mix things up tonight ahead of a crunch game with champions Liverpool at the weekend.
The two teams will be confirmed shortly before the action begins at 8.15pm.
