Key events
David Hytner has filed his match report from Old Trafford, so that’s my cue to bow out. Thanks for your company and correspondence, and sorry not to get through it all. There was too much happening, most of it generated by Salah and Diaz, with a little help from poor old Casemiro. In other news, England have wrapped up the Test series against Sri Lanka – but it will surely be Liverpool who hog the back pages tomorrow.
“Whoever thought that Ineos were the answer to Man U’s problems,” says Reto Kohler, “did not look at their sub-par track record with their other clubs (which clearly demonstrates their lack of success, but I bet the desks in Lausanne and Nice are tidy) and now has the proof repeated on a weekly basis. It’s almost as if ETH wants to show them up deliberately for having kept him rather than paid him off.”
Here’s Arne Slot, reinforcing his reputation for keeping calm. “United started really aggressive and we had to fight through that…. Then late on Alisson made two good saves.” He was particularly pleased that Liverpool didn’t let the disallowed goal bother them.
“Please can you not post emails,” says Claire McConnell, “that misuse the word schizophrenic. First of all, it doesn’t mean split personality and secondly (and more importantly) it stigmatizes people with a mental illness. I thought we’d got beyond this and am really sad to see that we haven’t. As a Guardian supporter, I expect better.” And you’re right to. I completely see your point and I’m kicking myself for getting it wrong. Thanks for the email (and the support).
Mo Salah, asked if he recharged his batteries over the summer, comes out with a poetic line. “I spent some time,” he says, “with myself.”
“Liverpool have a better squad than Man U,” says Dan Christmas, “but is it 0-3 better? I think that’s the question Big Jim needs to ask this week. Poch must be warming up the lemons.”
This one came in just before the whistle. “United have been much better,” wrote Stephen Carr, “since Maguire came on. Just saying.” Yes, him and Amad – both of whom started last weekend (when Amad scored). For once in his life, Ten Hag made too many changes.
“Consistently beating mid-table teams,” says Joe Pearson, “is a requirement for a championship contender. So the signs are looking good for Liverpool.” Ha.
The mailbag has been neglected again (more apologies). But here’s an email from our man in Naples, Colum Fordham. “While I take no delight – well, just a little – in seeing United flounder against a vastly superior Liverpool side,” he says, “I am slightly puzzled why Ten Hag should choose to offload McTominay, in my opinion one of Man U’s more reliable and incisive players. But I am pleased the Scotsman has been signed by Napoli and look forward to seeing how he adjusts to life in Serie A and Naples.”
On expected goals, the game was almost close: United 1.36-1.73 Liverpool. On so-called big chances, too: 3-4. But not on runs into the opposition box: 20-45.
United did start and finish the game quite respectably, but all three of their shots on target came when they were already 3-0 down. If you’d had to guess which team had just got a new manager, you would never have said it was Liverpool. They were a machine, running smoothly, while United were haphazard and disjointed.
Correction: United’s goal difference is minus 3, not minus 4. Because of the international break, they now have nearly two weeks to stew on it before trying to improve it in a Saturday lunchtime game at Southampton.
The Liverpool fans are dancing as Trent Alexander-Arnold blows three kisses to them. He very nearly opened the scoring with a goal that was narrowly disallowed.
So Liverpool, like Man City, have a 100pc record. And United, despite going toe to toe with City in the Community Shield, have already lost more league games than they’ve won.
FULL TIME! United 0-3 Liverpool
And that’s it. Not the massacre it threatened to be, but a great result for Arne Slot and a chastening one for Erik ten Hag. It’s also a sad, sad day for Casemiro, who was subbed at half-time after making the mistakes that led to the first two goals.
90+5 min Liverpool slice through United’s midfield for the umpteenth time. Maguire does well to get a tackle in.
90+4 min Strange but true: Lverpool have had three shots on target. And so have United.
90+2 min Amad, still a bright spark in the rubble, wins a corner. Eriksen takes it with his usual artistry and finds Maguire, who gets in a header and then a cross without really threatening with either.
90+1 min The first of five added minutes. Not sure Anthony Taylor has read the room there.
90 min The man of the match is Luis Diaz. Well, he did score two goals, but it could just as well have been his supplier, Mo Salah.
89 min Nunez goes close with a shot from the D as Mazraoui runs into someone. The VAR looks into a possible penalty, but doesn’t give it.
88 min Bruno Fernandes has a shot, his first I think, and it goes well over the bar. Up the other end, Salah curls in a cross that can’t quite find Gakpo.
86 min Here’s a rare sight for United fans: Christian Eriksen. A regular in Ten Hag’s first season, now close to an outcast, he replaces Joshua Zirkzee. Where’s Scott McTominay when they need him?
85 min Liverpool need one more goal to go top of the league. United could score one and still be 14th.
84 min Another Liverpool sub as Andy Robertson gives way to Kostas Tsimikas. This was Robertson’s 300th game for Liverpool.
82 min United nonetheless retain their ability to play as if they’ve only just met. Toby Collyer, so busy and so promising, passes out of play again as Dalot sets off on a run.
81 min United, bizarrely, have been the better team for the past few minutes. Amad, who’s been bright, gets a shot away now, but it’s too high.
79 min Save! And not by a keeper – it’s Mazraoui, shrugging off his brush with concussion to lay his body on the line. He lay down and refused to die.
78 min United chance! And again it’s a Rashford cross, expertly delivered to Zirkzee, who scuffs it at the far post. The crowd were booing Rashford before that, but they picked the wrong man at the wrong time.
77 min United’s goal difference this season is four times worst than last season – minus 4. Only three PL teams have a worse one: Ipswich, Wolves and Everton.
74 min Fernandes, who’s been quiet by his standards, sends Amad down the right. Alisson mops up. Two more Liverpool subs incoming: Nunez for Jota and Bradley for Alexander-Arnold, who, as last week, looks perplexed, though he then remembers the score and flashes a smile towards the travelling supporters.
73 min The cameras find Sir Alex Ferguson. Didn’t his team once go three down and then score five? Though not against Liverpool.
72 min Amad wins a corner on the right. Alisson punches it clear, United come again and Amad’s cross produces a scissor kick from … Martinez! Nice try, but it’s wide.
71 min Maguire’s first contribution was a header at the far post from the free kick. Then Rashford and Zirkzee again get into the box and show some fight, but there’s no way through.
70 min Gary Neville points out that the home crowd have been doing some booing. Is Ten Hag finally losing the fans?
68 min United are finding something in a hopeless place – some spirit, at least. Garnacho wins a free kick on the right, but then gives way to Amad. And Maguire comes on for De Ligt. A penny for his thoughts.
67 min Yet another Liverpool attack, but no fourth goal yet. And then United threaten to break but Collyer’s pass to Rashford goes straight out of play.
66 min Off goes Diaz, who took the first two goals with great composure. His place on the left wing goes to Cody Gakpo.
65 min Matthijs de Ligt could be in trouble here … he gets a yellow after cutting down Diaz. That wasn’t very Ajax.
62 min United chance! Their best one yet, as Rashford battles to carve out a cross and Zirkzee gets ijn a sharp header, saved by the impeccable Alisson.
60 min United manage to get forward, only to go backwards again as Rashford can’t find anyone to pass to. They now look like what they are: an XI that had never lined up before today.
60 min Liverpool surge forward again. They appear to have two extra players.
59 min Salah has now faced United 16 times and scored 15 goals.
58 min Salah comes close again! Over the bar. And again – wide of the far post. This is like the game a couple of years ago that ended 7-0.
No Casemiro, but it’s the same old story. Yet again, United lost the ball in midfield as Mac Allister bullied Mainoo off the ball. Salah’s finish was clinical,
GOAL! United 0-3 Liverpool (Salah 56)
Game over.
54 min Zirkzee’s supplier was young Toby Collyer, bombing forward and nodding the ball down to him. He seems to be playing as a No 8 with Mainoo (also on a yellow) as the sole pivot. Brave, minister, very brave.
53 min Hang on! Out of nowhere Zirkzee has a shot, drawing a fine save from Alisson.