United Again

Manchester United were totally dismissed in this one. There seemed no way on Earth Liverpool would not beat them at Old Trafford; just like the 5-0 mauling they dished out a season ago. So it was indeed a shock when they put in such a strong performance tonight; aggressive and first to all the loose balls. In fact; it seemed a totally different Manchester Untied than what we were used to.

Liverpool; on the other hand; continued their rather stuttering form. Strangely they look incoherent; short on confidence and creativity. The usual flow of their passing & movement seems to have deserted them. And their vaunted pressing game seems to have gone down too. Virgil van Dijk; one of the best defenders in the world; is going through a rather patchy form; as seen in his failure to close down Jadon Sancho for the first goal; leading to a rather stern tongue-lashing from veteran James Milner.

Whatever Liverpool tried; it seemed United were always their equals. It seemed like they remembered last season's 5-0 mauling and were determined to take revenge. Bruno Fernandes seemed to get back his usual hunger; Marcus Rashford looked more like the Rashford of old; and even new signing Lisandro Martinez finally displayed the aggressiveness we have all been waiting for.