Old Trafford was resplendent after a lick of paint brightened the scarlet red of the stadium on the outside and inside the only danger to the leaky roof was of it coming off.
Whether it is the pre or post-Sir Alex Ferguson Manchester United, the eruption that greeted Jadon Sancho’s intricate opening goal is one of the most deafening in the stadium’s 112-year history.
In these fallow times, only Scott McTominay’s derby clincher in March 2020 rivals it. United thought they were back that day. On this day, they fought back.
They played ‘Glory glory Man United at half-time’. If that was premature, it was warranted at full-time as Erik ten Hag glanced up the floodlights that brightened his full-beam smile.
This was classic underdog United; intense and in-your-face. They took Liverpool on at their own game, backed by an angry mob of matchgoers who channeled their own abhorrence of the Glazer family’s ownership and the tribalism of the occasion into a first victory for Ten Hag.
“We’ll never die,” they chorused at full-time, celebrating fouls in stoppage-time with all the gusto of a goal flying in. “Oh United, we love you,” they roared. After a loveless afternoon at Brentford, it returned.
True to the cliché their greatest manager coined, they did not make it easy for themselves, conceding in the last 10 minutes to Mohamed Salah to ensure there would be no mass exodus on a night some aimed to empty the ground.
It was a performance reminiscent of the victories Ten Hag’s permanent predecessor had a knack for whenever he was under the cosh. Ten Hag has been complicit in United’s soulless start to the new campaign yet against their fiercest foes he gained a sense of belonging in this “hell of a job”.
“Ten Hag’s Red and White Army” United fans rocked as the 90th minute loomed. He had no hesitation in accepting the crowd’s acclaim prior to kick-off.
This was the moment Ten Hag confronted issues in his squad. Cristiano Ronaldo and Harry Maguire, a curious dressing room power struggle, was rendered moot as both were benched. That was a masterstroke, for Raphael Varane demonstrated how perverse it was he was ever considered a substitute centre-back, using one stoppage to increase the volume.
Lisandro Martinez barged into Salah in the first minute and eased James Milner into the pitchside ditch. Diminutive Martinez was the model centre-back against Liverpool’s startled attackers.
Tyrell Malacia, the first summer signing, was an athletic upgrade on Luke Shaw. Martinez calmly savoured Marcus Rashford’s breakaway goal until he encountered Malacia, whose face he grabbed so tightly he seemed like he was about to kiss him.
Anthony Elanga assisted Sancho yet was hooked at the pause in a tactical change for the returning Anthony Martial. It was Martial who sprung Rashford through to make it two.
United targeted the defensive frailties of Trent Alexander-Arnold, both of their goals a consequence of exposing his dithering in his own third. The presence of Rashford, responsible for United’s previous Premier League win over Liverpool in March 2018, appeared to give the haunted Alexander-Arnold flashbacks.
