Liverpool 0-1 Manchester united

Another good away day for the shirts on merseyside, as United continued their magnificent league record at anfield over recent years. I can't pretend it was pretty, but this was a big three points. Although it didn't kill Liverpool's title hopes, it's made it very hard to see them putting a run together in the second half of the season that would see them finishing above us or Arsenal come May.
The undoubted stars of the show yesterday were the back four and the two midfield enforcers Hargreaves and Anderson. It would have been nice to have seen a bit more of an impact from the front men, but we managed to get the all important goal, and still created the best chance of the second half when Ronaldo and Rooney combined to set up the chance that should have made the last ten minutes a little more comfortable.
Though Liverpool started the slightly better team, they never really threatened us in the first half. What troubles we had, unfortunately came from Van Der Sar having a day to forget, twice in the first half he had rushes of blood to the head that nearly cost us dearly. Though the TV later showed the first mistake to be a crafty trip from Torres that the referee failed to see, the second was a very poor decision as he came out for a ball he was never going to reach, and only managed to collide with Vidic taking them both out of the game. Fortunately for Van Der Sar and us Evra was alive to the situation and managed to get to the ball before Kuyt and cleared the danger. It is hard to remember Liverpool creating a clear cut chance in the first half apart from these two incidents. That is not too say United were faring any better going forward, Ronaldo had one of those days, where nothing seemed to go his way, it would be nice to see him have an real influence on one of the big games. But the most we seem to get is the hope that he might pull something special out of the bag. Tvez was the best of our front men, holding the ball up superbly and giving their defenders a hard time. Twice in the game he managed to steal the ball of their defenders in dangerous positions but we could not make any use of them.
Then just before half time came the deciding goal. Giggs took the corner and instead of floating it into the area he slid it just outside the D to the oncoming Rooney who hit his shot hard and low. Just in front of the goal was Tevez who made sure there would be nobody on the line blocking it by redirecting it just enough to make it 1-0 and give us a huge psychological boost to take into the break.
If the front men hadn't really made much of an impact in the first half, Hargreaves and Anderson had. Just like at the emirates they were superb in the middle of the park, Gerrard hardly got a sniff in the match. Fair enough he may have been played too deep by Benitez, but when he did venture forward our midfield duo seemed to have his measure. Only once in the second half when he ghosted towards the edge of the box late did he cause us any problems.Vidic and especially Ferdinand were magnificent also, they managed to completely shackle Liverpool's man of the moment. Ferdinand was probably our man of the match, though Evra and Hargreaves ran him close.The closest that Liverpool probably came was Ryan Babbel's shot that flew across Van Der Sar's goal. But it was a shot from outside the box, which is where we managed to keep them for most of the second half. They still lack any real guile in the middle of the park, and you couldn't see any of their players creating that bit of quality to unlock pour defence. Looking at them this season, against good teams anyway, i think it's fair to say they will struggle if teams can keep it tight and manage to take the lead against them. I know it wouldn't have been easy for us yesterday if it had been them that had took the lead, but i am sure we would have put up a better effort than they managed in trying to reverse the arrears.
It might sound strange but the main thing i have taken from our two away games at Arsenal and Liverpool this season is a growing belief that we have as good a chance this season to win the champions league as we have had since we last won it. The team we put out yesterday would not have been thrashed at the san siro as we were last season. All this and we still have Scholes to come back, things are looking good come may.

Anderson and Hargreaves praised
http://www.manutd.com/default.sps?pagegid=%7BB4CEE8FA%2D9A47%2D47BC%2DB069%2D3F7A2F35DB70%7D&newsid=516025

More on the new Anfield, and the effects of the credit crunch?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/l/liverpool/7148782.stm

The budding Zola's and Baggio's of the future go on strike
http://www.guardian.co.uk/italy/story/0,,2228674,00.html

George Monibot lays into the latest grand world saving environmental treaty just signed at Bali
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2228615,00.html
He makes some good points about American election funding. I am not a global warming sceptic, but i am sceptical about why it is warming, i am not sure we really know why it is happening or if there is anything we can do about it. But the one thing i do know is, nobody is really serious about it, not politicians and not the peoples of the world. When people are asked whether it is important to the future they always say yes. But when it comes to implementing any proposals that might help alleviate global warming such as anything to do with getting people out of cars and onto public transport, if the proposal gets to a vote you can bet your life they will be defeated.

It's been a long wait, a new album from top Manchester band Elbow
http://www.bbc.co.uk/manchester/content/articles/2007/12/17/171207_elbow_bones_feature.shtml