United to the fore - now for the Real test

Manchester United 4 Liverpool

Much as he would love to beat Real Madrid, Newcastle and Arsenal over the course of the most testing programme he has ever faced as Manchester United's manager, Sir Alex Ferguson always takes a particular delight in putting one over Liverpool. He has not had much practice lately – five of the previous six meetings having led to celebrations at the other end of the East Lancs Road – which made yesterday's comfortable success all the more satisfying.

Then came a bonus with Arsenal's dropped points at Villa Park sending United to Spain on Tuesday level on points with them.

Liverpool, already missing Stéphane Henchoz, had his regular defensive partner Sami Hyypia sent off after four minutes for the foul which brought the first of Ruud van Nistelrooy's two penalties. That was a little early for United to start easing up, even with so many daunting tasks to come over the next 19 days, and the grit shown by Liverpool's 10 men – the injured Michael Owen not among their number – induced a certain edginess among the crowd before Van Nistelrooy's second spot-kick. A rare Premiership goal at Old Trafford by Ryan Giggs and a late flourish from Ole Gunnar Solskjaer added up to the biggest home victory over Lancashire's other Reds for 50 years.

"The second half was fantastic for us. We played almost without running and were able to save our energy," Ferguson said. "In the first half we were a bit sloppy and took our foot off the pedal.''

The accelerator was briefly pressed down hard in a Formula One start when Van Nistelrooy forced Jerzy Dudek's first save of the day after 12 seconds. Only a few minutes later the contest, such as it was, was effectively decided. A neat move involving Roy Keane, Paul Scholes and Van Nistelrooy sent the Dutchman clear to be pulled and then tripped by Hyypia. There was no doubt about the penalty, calmly converted; debate centred on the old chestnut of whether an offender penalised by the award should be sent off as well. Although the attacker has been denied one "obvious goalscoring opportunity", his team still have an equally obvious one from the penalty. It is the law that is an ass, not the referee.

Liverpool's Gérard Houllier, dignified as ever in defeat, rightly saw that as the turning point and was grateful that his second choice defence of Igor Biscan (immediately sent on as a substitute) and Djimi Traoré held out for another hour.

During that period there were few real chances at either end as the pace slowed to a level rare in what Ferguson calls the "tribal warfare'' of these encounters. Steven Gerrard's weak shot when set up by Dietmar Hamann was Liverpool's only opportunity of any description. United could claim they were harshly done by when Mike Riley decided Dudek had been fouled by Rio Ferdinand and Wes Brown before Mikaël Silvestre shot past him.

Traoré scraped away a drive by Giggs and in the period just after the interval United lifted any lingering doubt about their ruthlessness. After Dudek denied them acrobatically from Giggs' leisurely 30-yard volley, Biscan clattered clumsily into Scholes to concede another penalty. "At the moment we got it, I decided to put it in the same corner," said Van Nistelrooy who was true to his word.

"The second penalty killed the morale of the team," Houllier admitted. "They realised the task would be insurmountable but the score was harsh." Two-nil would have been about right but United stepped on the gas again by sending on England's David Beckham and Nicky Butt 11 minutes from the end, Beckham whipped over a trademark cross, Van Nistelrooy missed his second successive hat-trick with an unavailing lunge, but Giggs side-footed into the roof of the net.

Harsh and harsher: Solskjaer's drive inside Dudek's near post, after taking a clever reverse pass from Giggs, was almost the last kick of the game.

A double over Liverpool was United's first for six years and, as far as Ferguson is concerned, more than compensated for the disappointment of losing to them at the Millennium Stadium last month. "If somebody had said at the start of the season would we rather have two league victories over Liverpool or the League Cup, what would your answer be?'' he asked rhetorically.

Despite his essential respect for Houllier, Ferguson intensely dislikes Liverpool's counter-attacking philosophy. Conceding the first goal as happened in Cardiff was his fear, so to score so early, with or without the sending-off, was exactly what was required to go on and win so easily without sustaining further injuries was almost as welcome.

Juan Sebastian Veron was the one player missing and it said something about Liverpool, 10 men or not, that they could be so thoroughly subdued by a midfield initially without the Argentine, Beckham and Butt.

Houllier sacrificed the unfortunate Milan Baros, Owen's replacement, immediately after the sending-off, trying to play El Hadji Diouf out wide and pushing forward, but Africa's Footballer of the Year had no more to offer than the equally ineffective Emile Heskey.

Three winnable home games offer them lingering hope of returning to the Champions' League but two of their remaining away fixtures are against Chelsea and Everton, their rivals for that spot. They will need an improvement all round plus better fortune than yesterday, when Youlneverwalkalone's early fall at Aintree paralleled that of the team.

Manchester United 4 Liverpool 0
van Nistelrooy pen 5, pen 65, Giggs 78, Solskjaer 90

Half-time: 1-0 Attendance: 67,639