Manchester United talisman Cristiano Ronaldo has been playing catch up with Liverpool star Mohamed Salah in the race for the Golden Boot in the Premier League since the start of the season, but he was able to close the gap on the Egyptian talent when his team took on Burnley at home on Thursday night.

Cristiano Ronaldo had seven goals in the league before Manchester United and Burnley faced off at the Theatre of Dreams and he was able to increase his tally to eight league goals for the season with the third Manchester United goal in a 3-1 victory over Burnley.

Manchester United took the lead as early as the eighth minute through Scott McTominayat the expense of the Clarets before their skipper Ben Mee scored an unfortunate own goal to double the lead for the hosts on 27 minutes thus paving the way for Cristiano Ronaldo to add his own goal eight minutes later to put the game beyond the reach of Burnley who pulled one back through Aaron Lennon before the end of the first 45 minutes and that was as good as it got for the away team who had to settle for a two-goal defeat.

Cristiano Ronaldo had one goal and an assist for the first goal scored by Scottish national team player McTominay. McTominay was also responsible for the assist for the third United goal scored by Ronaldo. At the end of the Burnley game, Ronaldo took his attacking return tally to eight goals and three assists in 15 Premier League games this term. He still has a long way to go to catch up with Mohamed Salah who has scored 15 goals in the Premier League this season. The other players in the top three are Diogo Jota who has ten league goals and Jamie Vardy who has nine league goals.