Premier League: Liverpool 1-2Manchester United

Manchester United fans recognise the pre-match shiver of optimism. Maybe it is blind hope but they know that their team has been able to raise their level in some of the very biggest Premier League matches under Ruben Amorim. They know there have been signs of improvement this season. And was this not a good time to play Liverpool?

It is often the case that it is the prompt for a sharp reality check. After all, nobody ever really knows which United will turn up. Here, it was the version that Amorim has craved, the one he has claimed has been ready to show itself on a regular basis.

United had not won at Anfield for nine years. They had never previously recorded back-to-back league victories under Amorim. They chased the demons from their backs with a performance and result to offer the promise of better times.

They rode their luck. Liverpool hit the woodwork three times, twice through the ever dangerous Cody Gakpo. And in the 87th minute, before the eight that were added on for stoppages, Gakpo somehow blew a close-range header when completely unmarked in front of goal.

But by then, United had produced the moment that will stand the test of time. Gakpo had equalised after a second-half surge from Liverpool but United were in no mood to settle for a point. They pushed again and when Bruno Fernandes shaped a wonderful first-time volleyed cross from the left on the second phase of a United corner, there was Harry Maguire to head them in front.

Maguire had almost been the match-winner here last season when he lifted a stoppage-time shot high at 2-2. This time, he was not to be denied.

For Liverpool, it added up to a third successive league defeat, the overall sequence standing at four if the Champions League reverse at Galatasaray is included. All is not well for Arne Slot, his expensively re-geared team continuing to lack cohesion and conviction. They seemed to have made decisive late goals their trademark in the early weeks of the season. But after the late defeats at Crystal Palace and Chelsea, they were bitten once more in the closing stages.

It was an occasion that Amorim felt demanded experience. Hence the decisions to start with Maguire, Casemiro and Mason Mount rather than Leny Yoro, Manuel Ugarte and Benjamin Sesko. And his team could not have made a better start.

Alexis Mac Allister was pole-axed as he jumped for a high ball in the middle of the field with his Liverpool teammate, Virgil Van Dijk, and Mbeumo; the replays would show that Van Dijk caught him with a stray elbow while Mbeumo also left something on him. The United player was up and running, sprinting in behind the Liverpool backline.

It was Bruno Fernandes who floated the ball out of a crowded area to the right for Amad Diallo and Mbeumo’s run essentially put the instructions on the subsequent pass. The first-time finish was lashed high through Giorgi Mamardashvili’s hands. There were only 62 seconds on the clock. Game on.

Slot cut an agitated figure in the early going. He watched the patch-up operation on Mac Allister, which left the midfielder playing on in a rugby-style scrum cap. How had it not been a foul on him? Slot was even more perplexed when Gakpo blasted over a cross in the 18th minute, which hit Diallo’s hand. The decision was that it was not in an unnatural position.

The first half flew by, incident at every turn, chances at both ends. Liverpool moved up through the gears to advertise the equaliser but United more than held their own. There was a confidence about their work on the ball, plenty of nice interchanges with Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha prominent. Liverpool looked vulnerable on their defensive left.

Gakpo thought that he had made it 1-1 when he surged on to a Mohamed Salah pass to take Matthijs De Ligt out of the equation, unfurling a bending shot that rattled the far post. It was the prompt for a patch of pressure at the other end, United ruing a big miss by Fernandes. It was Diallo rolling the perfect ball back after some prompting from Cunha and the United captain was the favourite to finish from about 12 yards. His shot kissed the outside of the post.

Mamardashvili would drop a Cunha cross, almost to be punished by Mount and there was a vital tackle by the Liverpool goalkeeper to thwart Mbeumo after a loose Milos Kerkez pass. Mamardashvili then kept out Mount from distance.

Back came Liverpool and it was a wonder they did not score before half-time. Twice, Alexander Isak failed to finish with the needed conviction, the second one the big chance after a through-ball from Ibrahima Konaté. Isak was to the right of goal; Senne Lammens saved well with his feet. In between, a Gakpo cross deflected off Fernandes and came back off the far post.

If United had flickered at the end of the first period, Gakpo slicing just over his own goal and Konaté forced to make a towering headed clearance from under his own crossbar, it was Liverpool who pushed again upon the second-half restart. Slot sent his players back out early; they knew what they had to do and once again, Gakpo almost did it. Almost. After a deep Salah cross, Gakpo swerved inside to curl for the far corner. Once again, the upright denied him.

Diallo was fortunate to escape a red card for a vicious follow-through on Gakpo and Slot twisted just after the hour, a triple substitution turning the dial firmly towards attack; Hugo Ekitité on along with Curtis Jones and Wirtz. Szoboszlai moved to right-back. Liverpool pressed on to the front foot and there was a chance for Salah when a Kerkez cross reached him at the far post. The finish was uncharacteristically wild.

Liverpool deserved the goal that brought them parity. It was scruffy, United struggling to clear their lines after Ekitiké had sparked panic and when Wirtz went left for another substitute, Federico Chiesa, United were stretched. The low cross caught them out, Gakpo presented with a close-range tap-in. Maguire would summon the most stunning of responses.