By Rob King, PA Sport Football Correspondent
David Beckham plunged the knife into Liverpool's championship
pretensions as Manchester United's Premiership kings took a firmer hold of
their crown.
Breakfast had barely been cleared away across the land when England's
new wonderkid crashed home the 22nd-minute Old Trafford goal which
shattered their greatest rivals' unbeaten start to the season.
For Alex Ferguson's injury-hit champions it was the perfect start to a
gigantic week which will take them this into the Champions' League cauldron
of Istanbul and on into the den of their other great challengers, Newcastle.
Defeat in any one of these games will be intensely damaging, but in
stretching their two-year Premiership home invincibility to a 35th game,
they did themselves a power of good, narrowing the Merseyside advantage to
a single point.
Liverpool, who rarely prosper here -- just one win in 13 years -- went
back down the East Lancs Road knowing they have only themselves to blame.
Victory could not have been by a narrower thread, hanging by the
bootlaces of Peter Schmeichel's 86th minute save from the brilliant Czech
Patrik Berger and the profligacy of Steve McManaman.
Sky's determination to screen live the most compelling fixture of the
season resulted in a compromise that saw most of these players kicking off
earlier than any have probably done since their schooldays.
As Alex Ferguson bitingly observed a sunny October morning is a bizarre
time to turn in a championship-winning performance.
But while his team were yet again bafflingly inconsistent, their ability
to stay high in domestic contention while they concentrate on the biggest
prize will cushion them next spring.
They were boosted by the news that Ryan Giggs today became the seventh
player within weeks to commit himself to Old Trafford beyond the millennium
with a new five-year contract.
But that was overshadowed by his absence, along with Gary Pallister,
from Ferguson's starting line-up. Fortunately Norwegian defender Ronny
Johnsen was fit to return alongside David May while Jordi Cruyff filled in
for Giggs.
As the game unfolded the more damaging absentee was Robbie Fowler, who
scored both goals in last season's 2-2 draw and who gives Liverpool such a
cutting edge.
Hoddle and John Gorman were among the 55,128 crowd to check on his
partner Stan Collymore, and other fringe contenders like Dominic Matteo,
unfit for England in midweek, David James and Nicky Butt.
But far more valuable perhaps were the tactical lessons, Liverpool
employing a back three with far more panache and understanding than we saw
at Wembley on Wednesday, while Beckham showed how effective he is in a more
central role than as a wing-back.
His quick wits and Butt's willing courage held the tide as Liverpool, a
rejuvenated John Barnes pulling the strings, had the possession but not the
penetration.
James was far busier, diving at the feet of the baby-faced Ole Gunnar
Solskjaer as he sought to add to his four goals in four games, and then
racing out of his area to block him off after a suicidal back pass by
Matteo in the 11th minute.
The presence of so many foreigners had certainly reduced the usually
frantic element of these games but not its quality.
And the tensions soon boiled, referee David Elleray excellent in keeping
the lid on, booking May, McAteer, Babb and Thomas but contenting himself
with lecturing other offenders.
High noon was still a few minutes off when Beckham broke the deadlock
with a goal out of the beautiful blue morning sky.
Gary Neville hoisted the ball forward from halfway and Solskjaer's
superb first touch, hooking the ball on the turn, wrong-footed the
Liverpool defence.
Matteo managed to get a foot on his shot but the ball broke for
England's 21-year-old to rasp a wicked right-foot 20 yard shot past the
helpless James and in off the base of his right-hand post.
It was Liverpool's misfortune that their best chances fell to
McManaman's right foot, the free spirit so good at getting into good
positions but so poor at finishing them off.
In the 28th minute Barnes put him free on the right but his shot flew
across goal and out for a throw-in on the far side to his intense
embarrassment. It did not get much better.
He had another chance from Berger's cross from the left but the ball
arrived beyond the back stick at an awkward height and again he hooked it
across goal.
In the 62nd minute, the busy Berger hustled a subdued Eric Cantona --
celebrating the game which marked his return from suspension a year ago --
and Barnes put McManaman clear again on the right. Guess what? Yes, a shot
flashing towards the corner flag instead of the corner of the goal.
The tide turned more heavily against United in the second half when
Liverpool had so much of the ball but could not break down Schmeichel's
rearguard.
Thomas sneaked in ahead of Butt to head over Bjornebye's cross in the
64th minute.
Then McManaman brought the ball out from a United corner and sparked a
devastating 66th minute breakaway, McAteer setting up Collymore for a deep
cross that Berger looped against the outside of the back post.
From the half-cleared corner Schmeichel acrobatically touched over
Scales' zipping header.
But the best chance arrived with just four minutes to go, when Berger
was clipped through brilliantly by McManaman and had an over-exposed
Schmeichel seemingly at his mercy. But somehow the Dane stuck out his left
leg and deflected the shot away.
By Rob King, PA Sport Football Correspondent
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