Undefeated, you say?

More bad news for United…

That’s all from me. Here’s the match report again. Bye!

There was a snippet of breaking news mid-match, and as far as United were concerned it wasn’t good.

Here’s David Hytner’s match report from Anfield:

For Manchester United fans, it is the hope that kills them. The hope that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer can find the answers, that the flickers of promise from his tenure can morph into meaningful momentum, that the romance inherent in his appointment can somehow over-ride the problems and the drift at the top of the club.

This was a game in which Liverpool’s superiority was so pronounced for most of the first half and the early part of the second that it would have been no surprise had they led by five or six. The intensity of their football coupled with the surgical nature of their incisions were enough to take the breath. It certainly seemed to take that of United. During the period, it felt like the latest reality check for Solskjaer and his players. And yet at the end, the very end, after United had loaded men into the Liverpool area for an all-or-nothing corner, there was Mohamed Salah racing onto Alisson’s clearance, holding off Daniel James and finally giving Liverpool the breathing space they had craved.

Virgil van Dijk talks to Jamie Carragher, first about his goal:

We tried to find the near post and it worked. Fantastic delivery and the timing was there. It’s never easy, set pieces. For us I’ve always been marked by the strongest defensive header guys. Today it was two opponents. It’s always difficult, but I think if the timing is right it’s a big chance.

And then about the disallowed goal:

I didn’t jump with my hands up. It’s difficult to say. But if the VAR gives it, you have to just accept it. I thought it was no foul, but you have to accept it. That’s the rules these days. But we had many more opportunities to score goals today and make it look easy. We had two, three, maybe four clear-cut chances. You have to find a way, and in the end we did.

And finally, after Carragher tries to make him admit Liverpool look title-bound:

I think everyone wants us to say something about it but we won’t. We won’t get carried away. We cannot, and we won’t. I think what we experienced last year is something that made our mentality like this. We just want to go one game at a time, try to stay fit, try to improve.

Not a great game, but certainly a gripping one. Liverpool could have made it easier for themselves, and but for a couple of poor final passes to Mane and a silly Salah miss it would surely have been a straightforward home win. But United eventually fought their way into the game, and after Mata and Greenwood were introduced they were the more dangerous team. Martial had their one real chance, and fluffed it real bad.

Sky try very hard to force Henderson and/or Salah to admit that they look title-bound, but it’s not happening. Here’s Henderson:

We’re not really thinking about the end. Why should we change now? Why think about the end of the season? There’s still a lot of games left. For us as players it’s the next game, the next challenge, and the Premier League’s tough. United played well at times today, but overall I think we deserved the three points. 1-0’s a dangerous scoreline. I feel as though we should have killed the game off earlier, with the chances that we had, but we kept going, defended well and managed to get a second in the end. This is special. We’re enjoying our football. But you’ve got to stay hungry, you’ve got to keep learning, keep wanting more. We’re going to keep going until the end of the season.

90+2 mins: United win another corner. De Gea is denied permission to go up for it.

90+2 mins: Every cross seems to dip onto Van Dijk’s forehead. He heads coear again, the ball is kicked high into United’s half, and De Gea runs from his goal to beat Salah to it.

90+1 mins: There will be three minutes of stoppage time, or thereabouts. United have the ball back, and continue to press.

90 mins: Liverpool break. Henderson runs through but can’t quite outpace Dalot and thus has to rush and indeed fluff his cross.

89 mins: United take a short corner to Mata. Lallana pokes the ball away from the Spaniard, who manages to convert the situation into a free kick, which leads to another corner. Pressure.

88 mins: The home side counter. Alexander-Arnold sets Salah sprinting against Wan-Bissaka, who keeps up well enough. Salah eventually chips a decent cross to the far post, where nobody is there to head in.

87 mins: Shaw is suffering from a spot of cramp, forcing United to take him rather than Wan-Bissaka off as Diogo Dalot comes on.

86 mins: Liverpool’s post-substitional tactical rejig has seen them switch to a 4-5-1, with Salah on his own up front.

84 mins: There have been spells in this match where United have been on the verge of being submerged. Had Salah converted that chance early in this half, that might indeed have happened. Instead here they are, still a single goal down and with six minutes to take advantage of an increasingly jittery Anfield.

82 mins: Liverpool use up their last two substitutions, bringing on Fabinho and Divock Origi, and taking off Firmino and Mane.

81 mins: United win a corner, and it’s curled towards the near post where four of their players compete with one defender. It looked to me like Maguire headed it clear.

80 mins: United keep the ball around Liverpool’s area for a while, until Mata plays a one-two with Wan-Bissaka and scoops in a lovely-looking but inaccurate cross that bounces through to Alisson.

78 mins: Martial’s excellent cross is just too high for Greenwood. United, though, are starting to sniff an equaliser.

77 mins: Alexander-Arnold crosses towards the onrushing Mane, who backheels towards Firmino, but there’s a little bit too power on his touch and by the time the Brazilian has it under control and is facing the goal, there are too many defenders there for him to get a shot on target.

74 mins: United make a double substitution, bringing Juan Mata and Mason Greenwood on and taking Williams and Pereira off.

73 mins: Alexander-Arnold takes; United head clear.

72 mins: Salah spins past Shaw, who has both hands round the Egyptians waist as he attempts to recover. Free kick, and a booking.

70 mins: For the last 10 minutes or so we have had a pretty even game, with both sides threatening.

67 mins: Now a better shot from distance, this time from Fred. This time Alisson shovels it behind for a corner.

67 mins: Martial hits a low 30-yarder straight at Alisson.

66 mins: Liverpool take off Oxlade-Chamberlain, who looks extremely grumpy about either this decision or his own performance, and bring on Lallana.

63 mins: Another chance for Liverpool. They break from the edge of their area, Wijnaldum does excellently to beat Maguire in the centre circle and he releases Mane, but Lindelof does well to hold up his run and force him onto his left foot, and his eventual shot is feeble and off target.

61 mins: How Liverpool’s goal survived the last five minutes I don’t know. Those two chances, for Fred and Martial, have changed the flow of the game a bit, building United’s confidence and weakening Liverpool’s.

59 mins: Impossible miss! Martial plays a one-two with Pereira, chests the ball down, and lashes the ball goalwards from 12 yards or so, but it flies over the bar!

57 mins: A chance for an equaliser! Fred intercepts Alexander-Arnold’s poor long throw on the halfway line and runs without any kind of challenge into Liverpool’s penalty area, where he shoots wide of the near post. “As frustrating as the whole situation was around the first disallowed goal, I take some small crumb of satisfaction from the fact that De Gea picked up an insanely unnecessary yellow card,” writes Matt Dony. “His protests had no effect on the final outcome. He screamed in a man’s face, then the decision went his way anyway. Also, my father played in goal back in the ‘good old days’. He fondly remembers times when, in the face of a couple of 14 stone forwards charging at him, he had no choice but to throw the ball over the crossbar and concede a corner. Keepers today don’t know they’re born.”

56 mins: How United’s goal survived the last 10 minutes I don’t know.

55 mins: Firmino dances inside the penalty area, humiliating a couple of defenders before shooting into Wan-Bissaka’s bum.

52 mins: Alexander-Arnold’s cross hits Shaw’s hand, but no dice from the officials (it was, to be fair, thundered into him from no distance). Oxlade-Chamberlain’s low shot is easily saved by De Gea.

52 mins: Lindelof goes down clutching his groin, but plays on. Wan-Bissaka seems unable to sprint, and is either injured, knackered or lazy.

51 mins: How United’s goal survived the last five minutes I don’t know.

49 mins: Henderson’s left-footed shot from the edge of the area hits a post! De Gea got a fingertip to that, an excellent save.

49 mins: Liverpool seem keen to extend their lead. Now Mane shoots over from an acute angle.

48 mins: Impossible miss! Robertson streaks past Wan-Bissaka on the left and crosses, Shaw trips over his own feet, and Salah, with the goal at his mercy from the six-yard line, hits it into his left foot off his right foot, and it bobbles wide! A comedy of errors.

47 mins: Henderson has the first shot of the second half, from 25 yards or so after Salah gave up attempting to create a shooting chance for himself and laid it off, but it’s deflected to safety.

46 mins: Peeeeeeeep! Both sides unchanged.

The players are back out and ready for more.

There was also this:

Of Sky’s three studio guests, Patrice Evra says Van Dijk fouled De Gea, and both Graeme Souness and Roy Keane are furious about it. Souness’s argument is that it is impossible for an outfield player to challenge a goalkeeper more fairly than Van Dijk did, and thus if that is a foul then it is impossible for goalkeepers to be challenged, but goalkeepers should be challengeable, and that therefore is not a foul. It has some merit, I think. Even goalkeepers think it wasn’t a foul:

The debate over Liverpool’s first disallowed goal continues. “I was a goalkeeper In football and ice hockey, and a catcher in baseball,” writes Hubert O’Hearn. “I’ll flat out tell you we’re over-protected. Contact before the ball arrives? That’s a foul. If we drop, fumble or bumble? Not a foul! Keepers are, or should be, made of stern stuff. Don’t treat the brethren of the nets like porcelain dolls. Now get me a whisky in a dirty glass.”

45+2 mins: Liverpool win their eighth corner of the half; United are still in search of their first.

45+1 mins: Into stoppage time, of which there’ll be a couple more minutes. Wijnaldum passes to Mane inside the area, but his first touch takes him away from goal and again defenders get over to challenge.

45 mins: Chance! United’s defence falls apart like so much sodden toilet paper. Salah passes to Mane, who is in all sorts of space. It’s not a great pass, forcing Mane to stall his run and giving Lindelof a chance to recover, but he still pushes it ahead of himself and lashes a shot goalwards from just inside the area. De Gea saves with his right boot.

44 mins: Pereira shoots from 25 yards, and Allison catches.

43 mins: Robertson boots the ball upfield, and with Salah lurking behind him Shaw raises his right foot, volleys gently over his shoulder, spins and is away. One for the showreel there.

41 mins: Chance for United! Martial curls an excellent cross to Wan-Bissaka, who half-volleys across to Pereira, who just needs to touch it in at the far post but can’t quite reach it! “The reaction of the United players following what seemed a perfectly legit challenge by van Dijk was an unwelcome reminder of the days of Roy Keane,” fumes Tony Wawryk. “Players shouting in the ref’s face, pointing, manhandling - they lost their heads. Half the team should have been booked and de Gea sent off. Shocking behaviour.”

40 mins: A moment of promise for United as Pereira runs into the area, but for some reason James steps across to tackle him.

37 mins: This is your traditional hurly-burly, wild and error-strewn old-fashioned English top-flight fare. Wijnaldum is playing excellently, having been pretty much immune so far.

36 mins: Liverpool have the ball in the net again, but this time the linesman’s got a flag up! It’s a fabulous through-ball from Oxlade-Chamberlain to Wijnaldum, who nudges it past De Gea, but he was six inches offside.

34 mins: United are experimenting with different methods of losing the ball on the edge of their own area.

31 mins: Van Dijk did look over his left shoulder to check De Gea’s position before he jumped. Perhaps without that the goal would have stood. He certainly didn’t make much contact with De Gea.

28 mins: After a promising start, United are wobbling like Weebles. Firmino tries to play through to Salah, but it’s just about intercepted.

24 mins: Chance! Firmino ‘s pass deflects off Fred to Mane, inside the area, who tries to take a touch, takes a bad one, and gives Shaw the chance to clear.

22 mins: An excellent sliding challenge from Wan-Bissaka on Robertson, but Liverpool have another corner. Williams finds himself dealing with Van Dijk again, but this time it’s headed clear at the near post.

20 mins: Andreas Pereira goes down, for no obvious reason. The physio swiftly persuades him to get up again.

19 mins: “You posted at 5 minutes that Matip passed to James. Tough to do when he’s on the bench for the other team,” writes Joe Pearson. Ah, ye olde Matic-Matip brainfart. I’ve edited it out now.

18 mins: Liverpool win a free-kick on the right, and Van Dijk nearly gets on the end of this one too. Maguire beats him to it, at the expense of a corner.

17 mins: Liverpool have played with no rhythm, but if that’s how United are going to defend set-pieces they don’t really need to.

13 mins: By the look of the red skies over Anfield this evening, local shepherds are in for a good night.

Indeed, Matip is in a Premier League squad for the first time since the last United game in October, and Fabinho for the first time since 23 November.

10 mins: Robertson slides in to prod the ball away from James, who had looked destined to win the race. James doesn’t seem to understand where the ball went or why he hasn’t got a free-kick for it.

8 mins: Wijnaldum heads a bouncing ball, which Matic tries to beat him to with a boot. The Serbian doesn’t get anything on the ball and not much on the player either, but Wijnaldum makes the most of it and the referee gets a card out.

7 mins: The corner isn’t up to much, and as Liverpool try to recycle the ball Alexander-Arnold shanks a left-footed crossfield pass out of play.

6 mins: Liverpool attack, but they too hit a poor pass, which forces Mane out wide. He lays back to Robertson, whose cross deflects behind for a corner.

5 mins: Matic sends James scurrying into space on the right, but his low centre is cut out by Van Dijk before it can reach Martial. That looked a decent chance, but the cross was not great.

4 mins: United have started encouragingly. They win a free-kick on the right, which Pereira crosses in and Van Dijk cuts out. “Please Roy, what would you do in Ole’s place?” wonders Mary Waltz. “Your top scorer is out. Your two best midfielders, McTominay and Pogba, can’t or won’t play. Your facing the best team in the UK and Europe on their home turf where they have not lost for 51 fixtures. You parked the bus at Old Trafford and earned a tie. the best result against Liverpool this season.what other choice does Ole have?” Yeah, but hats.

1 min: United are indeed fielding a back four. Alisson scuffs a pass to Robertson, which goes straight out of play for a United throw-in.

1 min: Action! United get the game started!

All handshakes and preambles complete, it’s time for action. Well, nearly.

Out come the players! Not long to go now!

There weren’t exactly a lot of silly hats among the United players pre-match. I think only Martial and Shaw were hatted, and even they were wearing beanie hats, which I think is a straightforward, no-messing practical winter hat, rather than a silly one.

There was talk of United playing a back five, with Shaw a bonus additional centre-half. But a four of Wan-Bissaka, Lindelof, Maguire and Shaw appears to be warming up together, so that’s probably what they’re going to do.

Here’s a snippet from Jurgen Klopp:

Our fans know that we take each game 100% serious. So we can’t be even more serious today. It’s all good. In the last game [in October] I didn’t see us there in the first half. Here today we can be a completely different animal, and that’s what we have to show. And then, it’s a football game against a strong opponent and we want to win the game.

Matt Dony is worried. Nay, terrified: “Having spent so many of my formative years watching United hoovering up trophies and swaggering to titles, they’ve got me in a kind of Stockholm Syndrome situation,” he writes. “On the one hand, the way they’ve fallen apart in the post-Fergie years is obviously enormously entertaining. But on the other hand, it just seems somehow wrong and unsettling to see them playing listless, goes-nowhere football, and flirting with mid-table mediocrity. They still have some lovely players to watch, but my word they also have some average ones. And yet, I’m terrified about this game. They’re still ‘United’. Liverpool’s run has to end sometime; I have no problem with that. But please, not against United. They still bang on about ending The Invincibles’ run. Having little else to cheer about these days, I simply can’t imagine how many ties we’ll have to hear about today should they win.”

Roy Keane, hat-hater:

Roy Keane, part of Sky’s team, is already angry. “I can’t say what he said off-air,” says Graeme Souness. Here’s what Keane said on air:

When I see people like Shaw coming back into the team ... the nearer we’re getting to kick-off the more worried I’m getting actually. I think I was fine about two hours ago. Do you know what, I look at the players, I look at them getting warmed up, and I see their silly hats. Do you know what, it’s as if their mindset is let’s not be beaten. That negative talk already. I’m worried, I have to say.

Here are the highlights of Solskjaer’s pre-match interview with Sky:

He got a couple of knocks again and jolts when he came on against Wolverhampton. He’s aggravated his back, he’s had some trouble before, and of course we’re going to give him time to recover and rest before we put him back on the pitch. He’s always recovered quickly before, so let’s hope he does that again. I wouldn’t expect him to be back in the next few weeks. I think we’ve got a way that ... we have to come to a difficult place, to play against a very good team, and we have to try to maximise the players we’ve got. I think we’ve got a chance to give them some trouble with the way we’re playing.

More pre-match reading:

Here’s that Solskjaer bit on Rashford:

Burnley have indeed beaten Leicester by two goals to one goal. John Brewin has the aftermath:

Meanwhile, some news breaks about Marcus Rashford, who according to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will be out “for weeks” with his back injury.

It’s looking like another bad weekend for the Liverpool-chasers: Manchester City having drawn yesterday, Leicester are currently 2-1 down at Burnley, with nine minutes (plus stoppages) remaining.

So Liverpool play their familiar first-choice XI. United, meanwhile, play both Brandon Williams and Luke Shaw, presumably as some kind of Alexander-Arnold neutralising double-left-back combo.

Liverpool’s team coach arrives at Anfield. Team news should be upon us very shortly.

Hello world!

As you survey Liverpool’s path to the title in search of potential banana skins, there’s really not much to see between now and the trip to Manchester City in early April. After Wolves away next week (potential danger there as well, although Wolves’ home record isn’t all that great) they have a run of league games against the teams currently (in league position order, rather than chronological) 13th, 16th, 16th again, 17th, 19th and 20th. Win all of their games between now and the end of that run and they will be at the very minimum 19 points ahead with 27 available, and in need of three wins from their last nine to seal the deal.

In other words, it’s die or do now for Liverpool. Today they play the only team to have taken points off them this season, in October’s 1-1 draw at Old Trafford. If Liverpool are to win the title by a gazillion points, one thing that might make the experience very fractionally less sweet is if they have failed to beat Manchester United along the way. Today’s the day to rectify that.

Here’s some pre-match reading: