Liverpool 1-2 Man Utd
Liverpool suffered at the hands of Mark Halsey who firstly sent off Jonjo Shelvey, denied Luis Suarez a stonewall penalty before handing Man United a penalty gift in an emotional day at Anfield.
The result, in the long term, may be forgotten as the first Anfield fixture since the Hillsborough panel report was published saw Anfield decked out in a tribute to the 96 supporters who lost their lives.
Liverpool dominated vast periods of the game, both before and after the first half sending off of Jonjo Shelvey. Sadly though the same old story, as Liverpool failed to produce the killer touch - not surprising in a team with just two senior forward players after a massive squad reduction program enacted in the summer.
In the 39th minute Mark Halsey sent off Jonjo Shelvey for a lunge at Jonny Evans. Evans however was not reprimanded - he himself having gone in two footed on Shelvey. Shelvey had actually won the ball - so the decision not to punish Evans was even more extraordinary.
Nevertheless 10 man Liverpool came out in the second half firing on all cylinders and Steven Gerrard smashed Liverpool ahead within a minute of the restart.
Just five minutes later and Rafael fired a great strike to level proceedings.
In the 81st minute Agger and Johnson collided, Valencia ran through, Johnson chased back before Valencia went down like a pack of cards and Halsey pointed to the spot.
Liverpool hobbled through till the final whistle with just 9 men on the pitch after injury to Martin Kelly who limped off with a cruciate injury.
The reds are without a league win in their opening five games and sit in the relegation zone. With limited number of strikers and mounting defensive injuries - the clubs strategists may be wondering just what they were thinking with their summer cull of attacking talent.