Liverpool finally broke their jinx under Manchester United when they beat the defending champions to go top of the table. They can remain there if Chelsea fails to beat Manchester City later today. Meanwhile, it was a win that was achieved under strange circumstances, with Liverpool talismans Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres both missing due to injuries. Gerrard came on later during the match and played his part in securing the much needed win that would surely boost the Anfield players’ confidence this season. They are attempting to win the club its first title for decades and prevent Manchester United from picking up their 18th league title, which would pull them level with Liverpool as the clubs with the most number of league titles.

Manchester United first opened the scoring with Carlos Tevez hammering in a low cross pulled back by Dimitar Berbatov. That was the only contribution by the Red Devils’ new boy before he faded and Alex Ferguson would definitely be speaking to him about not doing his share of running and winning the ball back for the team. At that point, Manchester United looked to be cruising to another win over their hated rivals, as the Liverpool players looked frustrated and deflated.

But an equaliser eventually came, although it was a comedy of errors that led to it. A curving long ball swept in from the right by Liverpool was palmed onto Wes Brown by a flapping Van der Sar and into an open goal. The goal was a long time coming as Liverpool had failed to score against Manchester United for ages. While they did not technically score this time either, it was just reward for their persistent pressure. The match ended with Liverpool having 22 shots, an overwhelming edge over whatever the Red Devils could muster.

The winner finally came as Mascherano ran down the right flank in the second half, before losing the ball as Ryan Giggs came in to cover. The cause looked lost at that point in time, but the little Argentinian harried Giggs to the byline and managed to poke the ball through the Welsh winger’s legs to the excellent Dirk Kuyt. Kuyt then flashed a cross across goal to Ryan Babel, who stubbed the ball into the turf but it still screamed into the net for the winner. The Kop and whole of Anfield exploded in unison as the Liverpool fans celebrated a long awaited win over their greatest rivals.