‘Manchester United, supposedly sapped by injury, had the strength to overthrow their tormentors. During a run of four Premiership defeats by Liverpool, they had twice come to Anfield and been overrun. Yesterday, with a defence that owed more to improvisation than design, they made Gérard Houllier's team resemble harmless drudges.
The fixture will be recalled for the mistakes by Jerzy Dudek that dropped Diego Forlan into the hero's role. However, the greatest factor of all was the dreariness from which Liverpool could not quite release themselves. United did not revive their Premiership prospects with the usual pyrotechnics.
The flames burned mostly in the hearts of a back four who were indomitable. Sir Alex Ferguson has repeatedly wondered about the level of motivation in a team for whom medals lost their novelty value a long time ago. That questioning was intended to have a motivational effect and even if he has had to wait for a response the answer was most pleasing here.
Peculiar as United's goals may have been, the result made sense. Ferguson was grateful for the fumbling and fiasco of Dudek's handling at the opening goal, but also said, correctly, "I felt that in the second half we were starting to be a big threat to them." Liverpool had grown apprehensive by then, realising that all hope of domination had vanished.
Liverpool never inspired themselves into vibrancy, partly because United would not let them. An alarming first-half against Basle on Wednesday had persuaded Ferguson to switch Mikael Silvestre from left-back to centre-half and, in the latter position, he has the speed to nullify the pace of swift forwards, such as Michael Owen.
At either end of the match, Liverpool were dangerous only from distance. Fabien Barthez turned Milan Baros's half-volley round the post in the second minute. Expert as that piece of work was, it was drudgery compared to the astonishing response he produced to the 30-yarder by Dietmar Hamann, in the 83rd minute, that would have filched a draw for Liverpool.
For a small goalkeeper, Barthez has uncanny reach and that elasticity saw him ease the drive against the top of the crossbar to concede just a corner. For the most part, though, the Frenchman was well-guarded by the back four. The previous week's 5-3 win against Newcastle United had indicated that Ferguson's forwards would have to get the better of their defence's waywardness before victories could be recorded, but the story of their season may not be so rip-roaring after all.