Manchester United had a super day at work as they thrashed Liverpool’s title dreams with a 1-0 win at Anfield.

A goal from Carlos Tevez two minutes before half-time puts United nine points ahead of the Reds, who have a game-in-hand.

Referee Mark Halsey failed to take action against a Liverpool fan who hurled a golf ball which narrowly missed Wayne Rooney in the second half. In the future I will be careful to think that Sir Alex Ferguson’s temper gets the better of him on the sideline as this incident had my blood boiling.

On the pitch Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez shelved his controversial rotation policy and named an unchanged line-up, while Sir Alex Ferguson made ten changes from the side that drew against Roma in midweek including Owen Hargreaves returning in midfield. This was something over which I have been very sceptical.

The first-half was played at a frantic pace, resulting in both sides creating few chances.
Fernando Torres came close when he fired an effort wide from the edge of the box on 12 minutes.

Anderson saved United on 27 minutes after he cleared Harry Kewell’s shot off the line after Edwin van der Sar was blocked by his own defenders when trying to punch the ball clear.

The Brazilian then pressured Torres into heading the ball wide from the rebound.

A nervous Van der Sar was nearly punished again when the goalkeeper collided with his own player after trying to clear Steven Gerrard’s free-kick, with Patrice Evra forced to hack the ball clear.

Wes Brown became the fourth player to be booked for tugging Gerrard. From the resulting free-kick on 35 minutes, Gerrard’s strike hit the wall with Torres skewing the rebound wide.

The Premier League champions then stunned Anfield by scoring with their first chance of the game on 43 minutes.

A well-worked corner led to Ryan Giggs passing the ball to Rooney outside the box, the striker’s low shot was poked in by Tevez for the Argentinean’s ninth goal of the season.

Tempers continued to flare in the second half with referee Halsey forced to separate Rio Ferdinand and Torres.

A below-par Gerrard missed a good chance on 55 minutes after whacking his volley well side from Kewell’s pinpoint cross.

Benitez made a change on 70 minutes and surprisingly took off Kewell and brought on Ryan Babel.

Babel nearly made an instant impact when Brown’s header clear went straight to the Dutchman who fired a low-shot inches wide of the left-hand post on 76 minutes.

Rooney should have made it 2-0 a minute later but put his shot from close range wide after Cristiano Ronaldo’s cross.

In the dying minutes, Gerrard had a chance to equalise with a 25-yard free-kick but his dipping effort was over the crossbar