Premier League – Liverpool beat Manchester United

Manchester United lost for the second time in a week as a Dirk Kuyt hat-trick ensured Liverpool enjoyed a comfortable victory against their arch-rivals at Anfield. The result will ensure a thrilling end to the Premier League season, as United are now just three points ahead of nearest rivals Arsenal, who have played one more game.

The result is United’s biggest defeat of the season – prior to this week the Reds had only lost to Wolves – but defeats at Chelsea and now at Liverpool have reopened United’s title race wide open. the Premier League, even Chelsea, whose title challenge seemed insurmountable a few weeks ago, could still have a say in the winners’ trophy outcome.

Liverpool started the game brightly by trying to exploit the potential defensive weakness of United, who were unable to match Rio Ferdinand, who is injured, and Nemanja Vidic, who was suspended following his sending off against Chelsea in midweek. Liverpool were able to take the lead after two minutes, but Suárez failed to finish well after Kuyt’s cross. The scare woke the visitors and they were unlucky themselves when a long shot from Berbatov hit the post. United were again unlucky as Wes Brown’s header was cleared wide of the goal line.

It was the home team that opened the scoring on 34 minutes, when a great play by Luis Suárez left the United defense static and his shot would probably have gone in having already passed Edwin Van Der Sar, but Kuyt ran towards the ball to make sure, as he slotted the ball into the goal to claim his first of the afternoon.

Dismal defensive form from the visitors gave Kuyt the second goal five minutes later, when Nani’s misplaced header went down very well for the Liverpool player to score from six yards, giving the home team a comfortable margin. two goals to reach halftime.

The game got very ugly just before half time when Jamie Carragher gave Nani a terrible challenge, which resulted in both sets of players facing off in anger, the challenge resulted in Nani being stretchered off, and a yellow card seemed pretty bad. lenient for Carragher, on another day he could easily have been thrown out. This was followed by an equally crude challenge from United’s Rafael on Lucas, again the punishment being a yellow card, and again followed by displays by both sets of players.

Kuyt scored his third goal in the 65th minute, ensuring a comfortable end to the game, even a late consolation goal from Javier Hernández couldn’t spoil Liverpool’s party as it was given to manager Kenny Dalglish, whose permanent appointment now It should just be a formality. a blessed birthday present after turning sixty on Friday. Striker Andy Carroll also made his long-awaited debut for the home side, following his highly publicized £35m move from Newcastle United, when he came on as a late second-half substitute.