What significance the result of Saturday’s early kick-off will have on the final destination of the Premier League Title will not, of course, be fully appreciated for a short while yet but make no mistake, Liverpool’s 4 - 1 defeat of Man Utd at Old Trafford, Utd’s worst home result since 1992 when QPR beat them by the same scoreline, sent shock waves around this famous stadium and and world of football.

Liverpool came from behind to beat 10-man Manchester United 4-1 and stay in the Premier League title race.  Anything other than a win at Old Trafford and nothing else would have mattered.  That final nail would have been well and truly driven into the coffin.  However, this great game conjured up something special, something that, if it had been a script for a Hollywood film, it would have been laughed at and thrown away for being too ridiculous, and that’s saying something!

But it was Liverpool, Fernando Torres, Steven Gerrard, Fabio Aurelio, Andrea Dossena and Rafa Benitez who wrote the script and scored at Old Trafford on Saturday as Liverpool moved within four points of current leaders United, although they have played one game less. (Read my thoughts on “games in hand” later.)

“It was a magnificent, great team performance from front to back,” said Gerrard after the game. “It’s not often you see Manchester United get beat 4-1 at home.”   Very true, as the above statistic proves.   This was also Liverpool’s biggest win at Old Trafford since a 5 - 2 victory back in 1936.  Not many at Old Traffod and Anfield will remember that one.  There will be many though that will remember Saturday’s game for many years to come.

It was Man Utd and Cristiano Ronaldo who scored first with a penalty after Reina had brought down Park unnecessarily.   However that was the one and only bright spot for Utd.  They also had defender Nemanja Vidic sent off in the 76th minute for taking down Gerrard who would have been clear on goal. It was simply Vidic’s worse game he has ever played for Utd.  Up until this game he had hardly put a foot wrong all season and could quite easily be their player of the season so far.  Only problem is, Vidic and Utd haven’t had to contend with Fernando Torres and Gerrard before this season, both were missing from Utd’s 2 - 1 defeat at Anfield back in September.  The defeat on Saturday also brought Utd’s 11-match league winning streak to an end with a definite bump.

After the game the Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez said,  “We knew we had to win. I thought the players had confidence before the game and worked very hard against a very good team.”

Benitez’s opposite number Sir Alex Ferguson however must have been watching a completely different game to the rest of the hundreds of millions watching around the world.   Ferguson was valiantly (and somewhat ridiculously) trying to spin the club message by stating that Manchester United were in fact the better side in this game.  Perhaps he had a special TV monitor in the dugout that was playing a game from a previous season just especially for him, because which ever way you look at it, Liverpool were simply the better team on the day.If that was a good performance by Utd I wouldn’t like to see them on a bad day.  My local team would have a chance against them if that were the case!   None of their big players turned up.  Liverpool’s two big guns however, did.   But not only that every outfield player did for Liverpool.  Liverpool’s worst player on the day was their goalkeeper yet he only conceded a penalty, that speaks volumes to me.

Even die hard Utd fans, in the cold light of day and out of ear shot of anyone else, would surely admit that, not only was this was an impressive win, it was deserved.   Even the margin of victory should provoke few arguments.   Let’s face it, it might have been far worse had Gerrard not blasted the ball high over the bar from 10 yards out and had El Zhar kept his cool and simply rolled the ball across the six yard box to Babel, instead of behind him, in the dying minutes.  If he had it would have been a tap in for Babel.   At 5 or 6 - 1 even Sir Alex surely wouldn’t have had the gall to claim Utd were the better team.

Anyway, Utd’s lead, secured by Ronaldo didn’t last long as Torres leveled five minutes later.   Vidic had already had a few problems with Torres and he made the vital mistake of allowing a long ball from the back to bounce instead of simply heading it away. Torres made up ground on Vidic before the two battled for the ball but as soon as the defender had made the error there was only ever going to be one outcome as Torres poked the ball into open space and carried it into the area to beat Edwin van der Sar.

As John O’Shea’s own goal had done at Anfield earlier this season, that mistake and goal totally shifted the whole complexion of the game.   Liverpool completed that total turnaround a couple of minutes before half-time when they took the lead from the second penalty of the game when Patrice Evra tripped Gerrard in the box after a through ball from Torres. The Liverpool captain fired his penalty into the bottom corner to put his team in front in a game they simply had to win.

Everyone then expected Man Utd to come out in the second half with all guns blazing, but apart from Reina being forced to scramble early on in the second half to recover a cross from Ronaldo that hit the post and then fumbling a corner kick, the Liverpool goalkeeper didn’t really come under any proper sustained pressure.  Utd had plenty of the ball in the second half but Liverpool’s defence looked fairly comfortable throughout.

United made a triple substitution bringing on Scholes, Berbatov and Giggs with 17 minutes left, however moments later Vidic completed his afternoon of misery by rugby tackling Gerrard just outside the box leaving the referee (who I thought had an excellent game) with no option but to show the inevitable red card.  This was the second time the defender has been sent off this season.  The first time?   Yes, at Anfield in September. If the sending off wasn’t bad even for Utd, Aurelio simply rubbed salt into the wound by curling a lovely free-kick over the wall.  van der Sar, one of the best in the world, didn’t even twitch a muscle it was that well placed.

Then as the stadium announcer was informing everyone that there were 4 minutes of extra-time, second half substitute Dossena closed the scoring by looping a shot over van der Sar.  By that time Old Trafford had already witnessed the biggest mass exodus from the ground before the final whistle I have ever seen.  Believe me, this hurts Utd fans.   I can only imagine what it would have been like this game had been the true title decider it perhaps should have been.

On Sunday, Chelsea continued their impressive unbeaten run under temporary manager Guus Hiddink with a 1 - 0 victory over Man City with a goal from Michael Essien.

The victory meant Chelsea moved back into second place and therefore kept in touch with title rivals Manchester United and Liverpool.   It may have only been 1 - 0 but this was a comfortable win for Chelsea over Manchester City at Stamford Bridge.   The scoreline in no way reflects the Chelsea dominance.   Their passing was slick and quick and it simply left City chasing shadows all afternoon.

Utd still have a game in hand over both Liverpool and Chelsea but perhaps the leaders will now be looking over their shoulder now a little more nervously than they would otherwise have done if Liverpool had been beaten, as it looked like they would be after Ronaldo’s penalty.   I always maintain that I would far rather have the points safely on the board than have the game(s) in hand, no matter who the opposite are.   All eyes will be on Craven Cottage next weekend as Man Utd travel to Fulham and I fully expect them to get back on track with another 3 points.  Should Fulham actually take points off Utd and the other two keep winning, we could still be in for the best finish to a Premier League season since Blackburn lifted the trophy on the final day at Anfield, way back in 1996.   All Liverpool, Chelsea and neutral fans will be hoping it is.   All Utd fans will be praying it isn’t.

Cheers

Rik

If you would like to rate this article please simply click on the appropriate star below, thanks!

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Related Posts

1. Chelsea Keep Pressure On Utd
2. Liverpool Destroy Derby To Go Top
3. Liverpool End Chelsea Record & Spurs First Win
4. Liverpool Claim Vital Victory Against Chelsea
5. Man Utd Lose Again As Liverpool Maintain Pressure