Manchester United vs Liverpool EPL: In the battle between two most successful English clubs currently led by two Dutchmen, the new appointee proved too heavy over the old one as Liverpool tore apart Manchester United at Old Trafford on Sunday.
The home side made three changes in the starting line-up after last week’s agonizing defeat at Brighton. Erik Ten Hag preferred new arrival Matthijs de Ligt in the central defence in place of Harry Maguire, while Alejandro Garnacho and Joshua Zirkzee also started for the first time this season in the forward line. Meanwhile, Arne Slot in his first visit to the “Theatre of Dreams” preferred to stick with an unchanged squad that emerged victorious against Brentford last Sunday.
Enjoy the highlights from @LFC‘s 3-0 win against Man Utd at Old Trafford pic.twitter.com/CFF5aGbxH4
— Premier League (@premierleague) September 2, 2024
It was almost a perfect start for the visitors when in the 7th minute Trent Alexander-Arnold’s effort crossed the goal line after a lovely move set up by Virgil Van Dijk and Ryan Gravenberch. However, the replay revealed that when Luis Diaz made the centre pass, Mo Salah was in a marginally offside position, resulting disallowance of the goal via VAR.
Manchester United were never in control of the game, making way too many miss passes every once in a while, especially an unforced error from Brazilian midfielder Casemiro proved fatal in the 35th minute when his misdirected pass was latched on by Gravenberch who made a wonderful solo run through the centre before feeding the up surging Mo Salah to his right whose cross found unmarked Luis Diaz in the far post. The Colombian broke the deadlock with a glancing header, after averting a collision with teammate Dominik Szoboszlai in the process.
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Seven minutes later, Liverpool doubled their lead when Casemiro again was easily shrugged off by Diaz who immediately turned and charged straight for the United penalty area, linking up with Mo Salah on his right while continuing his run and eventually curling a sublime first touch finish past goalkeeper Andre Onana.
After a dreadful performance in the first half, Casemiro was replaced by 20 years old Toby Collyer in the central midfield at the restart. However, that made hardly any difference as the home side continued to play flawed football all over the field. In the 56th minutes, the provider of first two goals turned the scorer when Mo Salah received the ball from Szoboszlai from the edge of the penalty area after Kobi Mainoo was easily dispossessed by Mac Allister in United’s own half. The Egyptian’s first time left footed strike was beyond the outstretched arm of Onana.
Despite making further substitutions, United failed to make any substantial impact for the rest of the game except a couple of half chances attempted by Joshua Zirkzee. The match ended three goals to the good for Liverpool.
It was Manchester United’s second defeat in three premier league matches this season while Liverpool have won all their three games played so far, that too without conceding a single goal.
Arne Slot has successfully carried forward his predecessor Jurgen Klopp’s eye catching record against the Red Devils set in the near past. With this victory, the Dutchman became the first Liverpool manger to win his first meeting with Manchester United since Bob Paisley in November 1975 and just the second to do so away from home after George Kay in November 1936.
