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Marcus Rashford's two strikes in the first half were enough for Manchester United to beat Liverpool. The win strengthens their grip on second place – 5 points ahead of 3rd placed Liverpool.
Eric Bailly scored at the wrong end to give Liverpool some hope but they failed to capitalise on it. The Reds might argue about the 3 penalties that were not given but United were clearly the better team today.
Here are three things the Red Devils got right:
#3 Starting Marcus Rashford
Manchester United's wonderboy was the difference between the two sides in the first half. He was always on his toes and gave the flat-footed Trent Alexander-Arnold a tough time.
He squeezed past the full-back and Lovren and scored past Loris Karius with a blistering drive. In the build-up to the goal, he shipped Alexander-Arnold back to Liverpool.
The Englishman picked up a yellow card just after his second goal but was still jumping into tackles and showing the passion on the pitch – something United have been waiting to see!
#2 Ashley Young pocketing Mo Salah
Ashley Young has had his share of criticism from the Manchester United fans but after today, all his past mistakes would have been forgiven and forgotten.
The former Aston Villa man started as the left-back for United today and never set a foot wrong. He was always beside Mo Salah and made sure the Egyptian was unable to get any space.
Jose Mourinho used him like he made use of Herrera on Hazard last season and it worked like a charm. The league's top scorer did not even have a single clear shot on target.
#1 Route 1 is the only way
For the second home game in a row, Jose Mourinho got his tactics stop on. He played a slow game against Chelsea and today, he played route one style. Long balls were the only way to get past Liverpool and that's exactly what they did throughout the game.
De Gea was instructed to launch long balls into the Liverpool half, and Lukaku did a good job of winning the headers as Rashford capitalised on the second balls. There was no chance for Liverpool's midfield and that also took their 'gegenpressing' out of the game.
Has Jose shown the world the main weakness of this Liverpool side? I think so.
