​PREMIER LEAGUE: Man Utd defeat Liverpool in game of two halves

All the scoring came in the second 45 minutes as Manchester United overcame a forgettable first half to triumph over their East Lancashire neighbours Liverpool at Old Trafford.

There used to be a time when Manchester United and Liverpool clashes were by-words for open warfare full of passion and commitment interspersed with talented players making for a full blooded spectacle.

Yet the first 45 minutes at Old Trafford was poor. Could there have been a more tedious first half between these two bitter North West rivals?

This Premier League fixture has produced 16 red cards - only Everton v Liverpool (20) has seen more – yet on this initial evidence it would not have surprised anyone if the players had not politely swapped shirts as they made their way down the tunnel with still half the game to play.

Liverpool set out to frustrate United and in that were successful, not that they needed much help such was the home side's ineptness playing with Marouane Fellaini as a striker, though the Reds could take little comfort from their lone attacking figure of Christian Benteke.

Surely the second half had to be an improvement? Well, an early goal from United certainly helped. Juan Mata elected to cut the ball back from a free kick instead of the expected cross and the unmarked Daley Blind supplied the finish from 18 yards.

And so we had the proverbial game of two halves.

Suddenly the noise levels at Old Trafford increased. Liverpool responded well with Danny Ings twice forcing saves from the returning David de Gea and Roberto Firmino having an efforts cleared off the line by Chris Smalling and Blind.

But the Merseysiders failed to capitalise on this period of dominance and paid the price on 70 minutes as Joe Gomez brought down Ander Herrera inside the eighteen yard area. The victim made no mistake with the penalty, doubling United's advantage.

But Benteke did give Liverpool hope with a spectacular overhead kick with eight minutes remaining only for United's expensive teenage summer signing Anthony Martial, making his debut as substitute, restore the two goal advantage with a wonderful solo strike

Manchester United have won eight of their nine most recent meetings with Liverpool in all competitions at Old Trafford and move up to joint second in the table with Arsenal.

For Liverpool, they have only won one of their last eight away games in the Premier League and whilst there was a marked improvement after the break there are still question marks over their quality and the possible future of boss Brendan Rodgers should results not improve.

Man Utd: 3 (Blind 49, Herrera (pen) 70, Martial 86)

Liverpool: 1 (Benteke 84)