Manchester United returned to winning ways on Sunday as Romelu Lukaku’s first-half double was enough to give them a 2-0 victory over Burnley.
Jose Mourinho’s men secured a morale-boosting win to reduce some of the pressure on their manager despite Paul Pogba’s missed penalty and Marcus Rashford’s red card in the space of two second-half minutes. Burnley grew into the game but found themselves behind 27 minutes in, when Lukaku jumped just high enough to head a fine Alexis Sanchez cross past Joe Hart from six yards out.
Lukaku’s first Premier League brace in a year will come as a welcome relief for the striker, especially after he missed an open goal against Tottenham, but Sanchez was the star of the show on Sunday.
Restored to the starting line-up after regaining full fitness, he set up Lukaku’s first and played a key role in the move that led to the second, and was a menace to Burnley’s backline throughout. The performance led to a heated twitter debate in which Manchester United fans compared the Belgium striker to Chelsea Legend Didier Drogba.
Aged just 25-years-old, Romelu Lukaku has already scored as many Premier League goals as Didier Drogba. 👑
🔵 Drogba: 104 goals in 254 games
🔴 Lukaku: 104 goals in 224 gameshttps://t.co/tnh9qZhbng— SPORTbible (@sportbible) September 3, 2018
Chelsea fans were furious
Drogba was a big game player and a match winner, a complete striker. Lukaku is a soft flat track bully. Goes hiding in big matches offers nothing. No link up play, assists or goals. Doesn't bully CB's, don't know what he offers.
— AB (@AbinD_) September 3, 2018
Golden boot/
Lukaku will become Man utd's top goal scorer if he continues playing like this Mark my words👊
— Munashe (@Munashesss) September 3, 2018
Banter..
Lukaku matched your club's legend goals playing 30 games less.
He's 25
— Prof By Affidavit (@bayuulivelife) September 3, 2018
And the football gods were called into play too
Lukaku needs to improve as a player, & I hope the gods of football don't punish him more for some fans seeming comparisons of him to Drogba.
— ope (Ex Nigerian) (@responficient11) September 3, 2018
We think this ends the debate..
How am I going to tell my kids Lukaku missed both of these? pic.twitter.com/Z0u7vqhSVH
— Joshua 🦅🇳🇬 (@big_man_joshyy) September 2, 2018