Manchester United continued their recent dominance over Liverpool with a convincing win at Old Trafford in a game that also saw the sending off of Javier Mascherano.
In the build up to the latest meeting of these bitter rivals, many supportersof other teams may have though they felt the shockwaves caused by the explosion of the Premiership hypocrisy detection meter after Sir Alex Ferguson stated that referees needed to be shown more respect. While the subsequent events of his team’s match against Rafael Benitez’s side may have some conspiracy theorists on the red half of Merseyside asking how much influence the Manchester United manager is having over the season run in, the first half of the over-hyped Grand Slam Sunday was an uninspiring game injected with controversy thanks to a red card and illuminated by three clinical finishes from the Red Devils.
Liverpool have first half to forget
The game’s first half hour was an extremely bitty affair. Liverpool’s best chance came from a Steven Gerrard strike that was deflected just over the bar while, at the other end, even though Pepe Reina was in great form, Wayne Rooney should have put away at least one of the two good chances presented to him. The Liverpool keeper’s heroics continued to be required as Jamie Carragher and Martin Skrtel consistently struggled with long balls and, on 34 minutes, Skrtel failed to react to a Rooney cross which Reina could not reach before Wes Brown deflected it over him and into the net.
Things got much worse for the visitors just before half time when a foul committed on Fernando Torres saw both the Liverpool striker and Mascherano booked for arguing with the referee Steve Bennett. It was the Argentinean midfielder’s second yellow card following a justifiable caution earlier in the match for a tackle on Paul Scholes. Mascherano appeared stunned by the decision and continued to protest that he had simply been asking why Torres had been reprimanded as he was escorted from the pitch.
Late double seals United’s win
Mascherano’s sending off meant that, what was already an uphill task, suddenly became a mountain for Liverpool to climb, and one they were not up to. The Anfield side provided little in the way of a threat in the second half and, once more, it was Reina who was easily the busier goalie, denying Rooney, Carlos Tevez and Cristiano Ronaldo before he finally missed a step and allowed the Portuguese international to beat him in the air on 79 minutes for United’s second. Two minutes later and substitute Nani made the victory complete with a powerful drive.
The result gave United a six point lead at the top of the Premiership in advance of Arsenal’s visit to Stamford Bridge and the Mascherano sending off partially obscured Benitez’s inability to once again find a way to compete with the Old Trafford side, who were now 14 points better off than his own.
