Manchester United cruised to a morale-boosting 3-1 win against Burnley on the eve of Alex Ferguson's 80th birthday on Thursday to strengthen their push for a Premier League top-four finish.

Scott McTominay put United in front early and a Ben Mee own goal doubled their lead before Cristiano Ronaldo finished impudently to put Ralf Rangnick's men 3-0 up.

Veteran winger Aaron Lennon punctured the party atmosphere at Old Trafford towards the end of the first half, giving Sean Dyche's depleted team hope, but United largely bossed a flat second period.

The Red Devils are now in sixth spot, four points behind fourth-placed Arsenal with a game in hand after interim manager Rangnick shuffled his pack following a disappointing draw at Newcastle.

The German said he still had work to do with his defense but told Amazon Prime "physically and energetically it was a good performance".

"For us, it's about taking next development steps – therefore it was important for us to win this game today," he said. "Now we've gone eight games in a row without a defeat and since I arrived we have three wins and one draw (in the league), which is OK, we've got enough points."

Rangnick, who took the helm after Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was sacked last month, made six changes to his starting XI, rejigging his defense and starting Jadon Sancho and Edinson Cavani in attack.

Bruno Fernandes was suspended after picking up a fifth yellow card of the league season.

Burnley have suffered a number of postponements as a result of coronavirus and a snow-bound pitch and Covid-19 again disrupted Dyche's plans at Old Trafford.

Dyche, whose side had not played since December 12, confirmed before the game that Josh Brownhill, Nick Pope, Jay Rodriguez and Kevin Long had missed out after testing positive for the virus.

United were largely in control for the match as they ended 2021 on a high despite a couple of late scares.

The defeat leaves Burnley mired in relegation trouble, third from bottom of the table with just a single Premier League win all season.