The United manager got the perfect response from his team after back-to-back defeats, with their 10 men cruising home on Sunday

After back-to-back defeats against Brighton and Tottenham, there were plenty of debates as to what Manchester United needed. A new manager? A new direction within the boardroom? A renewed vigour from their players?

One thing that couldn’t be questioned was their need to bounce back with a win at Burnley on Sunday, and boy did Jose Mourinho’s side deliver.

The action-packed 2-0 victory at Turf Moor was a showcase of many of the best traits of Manchester United. They took the game to their opponents, got themselves into a winning position and threatened to score plenty more than their final tally. And even after going down to 10 men after Marcus Rashford’s second-half red card they continued to make chances while also showing the guts necessary to deal with Burnley’s desperate attacks at the other end.

It couldn’t have been scripted better by Mourinho no matter how hard he tried. The manager had got himself worked up in the week, referring time and again to his previous honours in a bit to build a siege mentality between himself and the Manchester United supporters.

There was even a pre-match plane protest by a group of United fans, with the words ‘Ed Woodward: A specialist in failure!’ being displayed in the skies as the debate over the executive vice-chair’s relationship with the manager intensifies.

But it was the performance on the pitch that was always going to speak loudest, and here United provided the perfect answer to the critics.

They started with purpose and desire, even if their play didn’t always have the same slick feel about it which had been evident in the first half at Old Trafford on Monday night. Jesse Lingard had a trio of opportunities early on, while Alexis Sanchez regularly got into good crossing positions and both Antonio Valencia and Luke Shaw were getting forward at will.

United eventually got the goal they had threatened when Sanchez waited and waited on the ball before delivering an inch-perfect cross for Romelu Lukaku to head home. It was a much-needed goal for a striker whose first-half miss against Spurs had been pinpointed by many as a key moment in the embarrassing defeat.