Premier League - Liverpool roar past limp United

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Premier League - Liverpool roar past limp United

Liverpool claimed their first Premier League victory over Manchester United under Rafa Benitez, coming from behind to win 2-1 at Anfield.
  














Substitute Ryan Babel scuffed the winner 13 minutes from time to spoil record signing Dimitar Berbatov's United debut.
Carlos Tevez gave United a third-minute lead, assisted by Berbatov, before a defensive mix-up brought Liverpool level via a Wes Brown own-goal.
Liverpool dominated the second half, with Steven Gerrard and Babel coming off the bench, and went provisionally top of the table with Chelsea playing later on Saturday.
A dreadful afternoon for the champions was capped off when referee Howard Webb showed Nemanja Vidic a red card late on for a second bookable offence.
The afternoon began brightly for United, who received a boost before kick-off with the news that Gerrard and Fernando Torres both lacked sufficient fitness to start.
Reports emerged on Friday that the pair had received a green light to play 90 minutes but found themselves restricted to the bench.
Berbatov was immediately placed at the spearhead of a formidable attacking force with Tevez and Wayne Rooney.
Having returned to goalscoring form for England in Croatia, Rooney found himself shoved onto the right flank, with Tevez and Berbatov up front in a 4-4-2 formation.
It took less than three minutes for the two front men to combine to devastating effect.
Berbatov dribbled towards the right byline before cutting a low ball back behind Jamie Carragher.
With Javier Mascherano out of position, there was no Liverpool player to cut out the pass, and the ball travelled a long way to Tevez, who placed a cool right-foot shot beyond Jose Reina from 15 yards.
With their two main men watching on, Liverpool struggled to create moments of genuine quality, but Dirk Kuyt fired a warning shot when he sent a dipping 25-yarder wide on six minutes.
Many of the home side's best openings came from left winger Albert Riera, himself making a debut appearance, whose close control and tricky footwork caused constant problems for Brown.
The equaliser came when Patrice Evra blocked Xabi Alonso's shot with his head, sending the ball into the ground and looping towards the lurking Riera on the left side of the box.
Edwin van der Sar hesitated before racing out to intercept the ball. He succeeded only in patting the ball onto the shins of Brown, and the ball trickled back into the United goal.
While Brown was charged with the own-goal, the fault lay with Van der Sar, whose shaky start to the season continued.
The goalkeeper had already survived one sticky moment, when he flapped weakly at a corner and paddled the ball to Kuyt, but recovered well to stop his volley.
At 37, the big Dutchman's best days look to be behind him, and Ferguson could soon think about replacing him permanently with Tomasz Kuszczak or Ben Foster.
Liverpool dominated much of the second half without really testing Van der Sar. Striker Robbie Keane has not yet scored for his new club and looked desperately out of sorts, twice missing the ball altogether when shooting for goal.
Ferguson's clever mind games in the week, publicly questioning Keane's £20m price tag, cannot have helped either.
But the home side's persistence paid off when Javier Mascherano kept the ball in play by the right byline, Kuyt crossed low and Babel enjoyed a slice of luck with his shot, which was hit into the ground before bouncing over two defenders on the line.