Wayne Rooney's double sent Manchester United top of the Premier League after a dramatic and controversial clash with Liverpool at Old Trafford.
The tone was set before kick-off when Liverpool striker Luis Suarez embroiled himself in another confrontation with Patrice Evra after refusing to shake the hand of the United defender.
The United captain offered his hand to the Uruguay international, who was banned for eight matches for racially abusing the defender, but he bypassed the Frenchman and went straight to goalkeeper David de Gea.
Evra did not accept that and attempted to grab Suarez's arm to complete the formalities, but the striker shrugged him off. Rio Ferdinand, next in line to De Gea, then refused to shake Suarez's hand.
The first half was hard fought, with Paul Scholes going closest when he headed straight at Pepe Reina after a fine move.
After the break Rooney scored twice in three minutes, first volleying home a crisp effort after a corner before clipping the ball through Reina's legs after good work from the impressive Antonio Valencia.
Suarez pulled a goal back for Liverpool when he latched onto a rebound off Ferdinand in the United box to finish from close range, but United held on for the win.
City will have the chance to regain the lead when they face Aston Villa on Sunday.
Action
Early on Ferdinand collided with Evra as both United players went to challenge Suarez, and after treatment Ferdinand eventually carried on.
Nothing much happened for a long time after that, with the game getting stuck in a midfield scrap.
Glen Johnson had the clearest opportunity, only to curl his shot wide after skipping inside Evra.
Rafael responded with a similar opportunity, which was saved by Pepe Reina.
It was not long before United opened their visitors up though.
Scholes continued his run after finding Ryan Giggs with a quite brilliant pass to the left touchline.
When Giggs delivered the cross, Scholes was all on his own on the edge of the six-yard box.
It should have been the opener. Instead, the veteran midfielder's header went straight at Reina, who batted it away.
After the flurry of activity, the contest reverted back to the mundane.
That was until the final minute of the half, when Ferdinand sent Suarez to the deck with a tackle TV replays showed was perfectly legal.
Suarez felt differently and when referee Phil Dowd refused to award the free-kick that would surely have brought Ferdinand's dismissal, he reacted furiously.
Booting the ball at towards the dug-out as the half-time whistle blew, Suarez had to be escorted down the tunnel by team-mates.
Once inside though, the whole thing exploded once more, with Evra apparently intent on confronting the Uruguayan, with players from both sides involved in a melee.
Goals
The Football Association will be wanting to know more about that but the spark suited United better judging by the way they began the second half.
When Jordan Henderson could only get the faintest of touches to Giggs' curling corner, it sent the ball straight to Rooney.
On his own at the far post, the England striker swept home a first-time shot.
The home fans barely had time to catch their breath before Rooney struck again.
This time, Liverpool only had themselves to blame as Jay Spearing surrendered possession to Valencia in a dangerous area.
Unselfishly, Valencia found Rooney immediately and the United man finished off his 17th Premier League goal of the season.
The whole complexion of the afternoon had changed.
After Michael Carrick had sent Suarez flying, Rooney was denied a hat-trick when he brilliant effort was ruled out for an earlier foul by Jonny Evans.
More good work from Valencia presented Rooney with another opportunity, which he spurned.
It triggered a double substitution from Kenny Dalglish, who introduced Andy Carroll and Craig Bellamy.
Then, after Danny Welbeck had scuffed a shot straight to Reina, Charlie Adam came on.
Suarez remained throughout, so was on hand to finish off after United's defence had got themselves in a tangle as they tried to clear Adam's free-kick and the ball bounced kindly off Ferdinand.
Welbeck would have eased a few nerves if he had not wasted a good chance on United's next attack.
However, after an excellent save from David de Gea to deny Johnson in stoppage time and Suarez missing from close range when he was offside anyway, the hosts held on to claim a valuable win, even if the hope of both clubs that the match should remembered for the football was sadly not met.
What is your verdict on the game? Have your say.
Manchester United 2 Liverpool 1
February 11, 2012
Comments
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All 3 points wrapped up, felt we could have killed the game off a couple of times but Welbeck and Rooney were being too unselfish, Valencia devastating again.
MOTM: Scholes, maybe Rooney, but Scholes does it for me, majestic on the ball hardly put a foot wrong even defended well.
Shame we gifted them a goal, out defence without Vidic is so susceptible to Aerial balls its ridiculous, Rio was very unlucky that deflection fell to the Suarez though.
Bring on Spurs, we get through that fixture with at least a point and the balls in our quarter as the fixtures will be against the Berts, come on Villa!
Brilliant performance........
Not great but, fortunately, Liverpool were worse. I was expecting 6 -0 until we started to bottle it. Giggs, Ferdinand and Carrick were well below par.
A useful win just the same.
Excellent result, but why, oh why, do we take our foot off of the gas? Liverpool was absolutely toast from the 2nd goal up to the 75th minute. We could have easily put a 3rd on the board, but we spent most of our time dinking the ball around in midfield. Did we learn nothing from last week? You don't mess around with a good team, because the simplest mistake and, BOOM...they are right back in it.
Either way, ecstatic with the result. On, UNITED!
Good win lads! Good performance overall, although we should have killed the game earlier! :o I can breathe again! Come on villa!
united til I die
Job well done!
I'm really glad we beat them today. They have shown no class whatsoever over the Evra affair. Great play by the midfield especially Carrick and Scholes.
We won because we played braver, faster and better for almost the whole game. Linking and passing were excellent. No weak links today, but special mention too Rooney and Tony V.
Suarez actions speaks for them selves. No need to comment on them.
Well done lads! We really have mediocre team withouth depht, eh (cough, cough journos)
we are looking good, but that one nearly slipped away. rooney, valencia and evans, magic and steady. where were the subs at 2-0? giggs and carrick were poor in the second half. bring on cleverley and smalling and POGBA in the middle. a win when it really counted. good to see the crowd behind Evra.
No excuse for Suarez's behaviour. He could have ended it all today. Meanwhile, top of the league and that's a fact.
Good performance by United. They came out of the half with fire and capitalized quickly with a pair of goals in 5 minutes. The last 20 minutes, United made the same mistake that Chelsea did last week. They started to defend deeper and deeper, inviting more pressure from Liverpool. Luckily Liverpool couldn't get the equalizer.
Great result but horrible to watch. Carrick was an accident just waiting to happen and he came through with the clumsy challenge that led to their goal. Scholesey was excellent as was Rooney. Robbed of a hat trick by one of Dowds few bad calls Generally he had a good game. Valencia was great again but Giggs was off. Not much better than Carrick. Why fergie didn't give Cleverley a run out at 2-0 I do not know. When was the last time Fergie left his starting eleven out for the full 90 minutes?
just get spurs out of the way now and we are home and dry just that easy game with the prima donners but thats a walk in the park come on u reds
A good win, a fair result and nothing to say about Suarez - he said it all himself.
I think the person who deserves most credit in that game was referee Phil Dowd - he had complete control and didn't let it get out of hand (full marks to him).
Midfield I think was a draw, Scholes lost teh ball too many times but otherwise, along with Carrick held thier own. Gerrard did nothing but overall Liverpool were poor - they, at times, seemed to get caught up in the occasion.
I Thought Evra was immense in how he kept out of any controversy on the pitch and, in fact, had one of his better games. Evans was strong throughout and is showing his form of 2 years ago. Rafael never really troubled.
Valencia was excelleny when attacking fullback but again too many times coming back. If he could just pass the ball 5 yards with his left foot he would be a 100% better player.
Giggs was Giggs, first part of game he couldn't find a United palyer to save his life then he put in that wonderful cross for the Scholes header. Actually seemed to get better as the game progressed.
Rooney did nothing except score 2 goals (LOL) and Wellbeck had an excelent game, holding he ball up well, attacking the defenders but needs a bit more composure in front f goal. There were tho' not many good balls for him to attack.
De gea had nothing to do really but panics a little under pressure and the defense is still not comfortable in front of him but taht will hopefully come in time.
All in all a decent game to watch with United being the better team on the day but not a commanding performance - they need to finish off the nearly dead and not allow them a chance to get back in teh game.
MOM undoubtably Phil Dowd.
Great result and Rooney really firing now.Wellbeck.s movement and awareness and Valencia's constant menace look a winning combination.We should concentrate on the positives such as Scholesy again pushing back the years and Evans looking steadier game by game.,rather than the Evra-Suarez nonsense.Great save again at the end by De Gea and not one offside against us in the whole game.Hernandez should take note of that when he next comes on !
Great performance. It would have been a travesty if Liverpool had got a point out of that. We're coming through this difficult run brilliantly! 13 points from Bolton, Arsenal, Stoke, Chelsea, Liverpool - you can't ask for much more than that.
MoM? Scholes? Rooney? Valencia? Carrick? So many to choose from? What pleased me most though was looking at the bench - Cleverley, Pogba, Berbatov, Fabio, Hernandez - talk about strength in depth! And we've got Jones, Smalling, Nani and Anderson coming back! We're getting close to full strength at just the right time - it's looking good...
I am very proud of every single United player. They gave their all, and were by miles the better team.
I'm not going to talk about individual performances because I thought every one of them was brilliant. David De Gea coming to the rescue again when we needed it.
Top performance. Onwards and upwards.
P.S: TOP OF THE LEAGUE!!
Brilliant for 75 mins and then started to pass sideways and backwards . Lost our momentum , conceded another sloppy goal which made for a nervy last 10 mins .
But for the first 75 mins I thought we were excellent . We had to concede a little bit of possession in centre mid with their extra player in there but we looked dangerous every time we came forward and a pity Scholesy didnt plant his header either side of the keeper to round off a brilliant move . Wellbeck was fantastic throughout and Evans had one of his best games for us .
Top of the table , another one of our trickier fixtures out the way , players returning from injury , its looking good .
Exiled Droylsden Red
What Suarez did was really embarrassing.
good performance, wonder what was said in the dressing room at half time???, we need to kill off teams when we go ahead, we slowed the game right down which allowed pool to get back in. Valencia back to his best form, scholes should never have retired fantastic performance , Johnny evans benefitting from a run of games looks better with each game
Great result. Would also like to point out that Rafael had a monster game.
Happy with the result but unhappy with the decision why no subs was used? Lucky just lost one goal. What a waste of not using Park, Cleverly, Little Pea.........
I am proud of everyone that has anything at all to do with United today, from SAF and the players right down to the fans everyone has shown dignity and class today!!
A great result and won in the right way, by letting our football do the talking.
I am not going to criticise anything today so sweet is the victory, or should I say revenge ! Much better performance by Webeck today. Pleasantly surprised by Evans again who is gradually establishing himself. In fact I should say well done to everybody. My message to all United fans : let's celebrate this evening. Tomorrow is another day.
Really enjoyable win. Well deserved too. Good performances all over the pitch. We did sit back a bit too early tho and started just knocking the ball over and back and it could have come back to bite us. Thankfully it didn't and Liverpool finished up with what they deserved. We played very good stuff at times. It's always good to beat Liverpool but in recent yes they've been so far behind us a little bit of sting has gone out of it for me so they Suarez controversy I think added a bit of spice to it and has made it that bit sweeter