United Grabs Pole Position

Manchester United 2 - Liverpool 1
Scorers
Manchester United: Rooney (pen 12), Park (60)
Liverpool: Torres (4)

Team: Van der Sar, Rio, Vidic, Neville, Evra, Carrick, Fletcher, Park (Scholes 87), Nani (Giggs 79), Valencia, Rooney

There are Premiership games, there are Cup games, and then there are Liverpool games. Playing Liverpool always brings up a special atmosphere, especially when watching with the right crowd. Today I caught it with my 'special friend', Kentona and Greg O, along with 3 other buddies on the other side of the red divide.

Things didn't start off on the right foot on our side of the divide. Torres capitalized on some woeful defending and got Liverpool a shock lead at Old Trafford. It looked like deja vu as another collapse against our fierce rivals looked set for another victory.

As much as we on the good side of Red, want Benitez to remain a closet United supporter, the points were way too precious to squander in a tight race to the summit of the Premiership with Arsenal and Chelsea being too close for comfort.

Our response was swift, incisive and determined. Valencia bulldozed his way into the Liverpool penal box and was crudely brought down to earth by a clumsy Mascherano challenge. The referee had no choice but to award a penalty. Rooney's penalty was saved by superbly by Reina but he was the first to pounce on the rebound to bring United level.

Despite their recent resurgence, Liverpool was desperately poor. We kept Torres and Gerrard at bay for most of the game. In the second half, Park brought the house down with a bullet header from Fletcher's rightside cross. It was nothing more than we deserved. We had been knocking on the door and finally found a breakthru with Park's superb effort.

The rest of the game was played out professionally with neither side able to add on to the scoreline. The 3 points leapfrogged us above Arsenal and as an added bonus, Chelsea could only manage draw against Blackburn, leaving them 4 points behind us.

We hold our destiny firmly in our hands, and barring any fuckups, we could really have a better than realistic chance of doing a 4-peat. Our run-in isn't exactly a walk in the park, but if Rooney continues his fine form till the end of the season, we could just ride him to the promised land.