5 times Liverpool destroyed Manchester United in the Premier League era

#1 Manchester United 0-3 Liverpool, 16th March 2014

The closest Liverpool have ever been to actually lifting the Premier League title was undoubtedly the 2013/14 season, as Brendan Rodgers’ side – fuelled by the goals of Daniel Sturridge, the brilliance of Luis Suarez, the leadership of Steven Gerrard and the youthful exuberance of Raheem Sterling – led the title race until slipping at the very end, allowing Manchester City to pip them to victory. Before those final disastrous results, though, they went on a dominant run of eleven wins in a row – and the biggest of those was a 0-3 win over Man United at Old Trafford.

For United, it was a season that started badly and simply got worse. David Moyes was still in charge at the time of the game although it was clear that he was way out of his depth, and the way Liverpool destroyed his team here simply underlined the gulf between the two sides at the time. Liverpool’s captain Gerrard opened the scoring with a penalty on 34 minutes after a handball from United defender Rafael, and he doubled the lead with another spot-kick later on. Incredibly, he could’ve had a hat-trick of penalties – Nemanja Vidic saw red for the fourth time against Liverpool after fouling Daniel Sturridge – but this time the captain hit the post.

It honestly didn’t matter. United’s attacking players – the likes of Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie – simply couldn’t get into the game, and a late goal from Suarez – his 24th of the season – just summed things up. It was painfully clear from this game that the days of United’s Ferguson-led dominance were over and this was Liverpool’s big chance to leapfrog their old rivals for good. While that didn’t turn out to be the case, in the long run, it was certainly true in this game and in the 2013/14 season overall.