Fergie holds keys to No.10 - Next title in sight after Javier loses Kop plot

13 April 2012

Even if respect for the referee was in depressingly short supply here yesterday, respect should at least go to Manchester United for taking another significant step towards a 10th Premier League title.

Sir Alex Ferguson described his team's performance as 'mature' and, against a Liverpool side who paid heavily for the petulance of Javier Mascherano, it was certainly that. But victory for United did not simply come because Mascherano lost his head and Liverpool then lost their most important midfielder shortly before the break. It did not even come because goalkeeper Pepe Reina also pressed the self-destruct button, flapping wildly at two crosses that were met by Wes Brown (34 minutes) and Cristiano Ronaldo (79) for two easy goals.

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Heads we win: Wes Brown heads United in front as Pepe Reina flaps at Wayne Rooney's cross

It came because United outpassed and out-thought as well as out-fought their fiercest rivals, providing a perfect demonstration of why they remain the finest team in the country and why Liverpool are still some way off being able to mount a serious challenge.

Before Mascherano was dismissed, Brown had secured the lead with his first goal of the season and there were other chances prior to that. Steve Bennett failed to award United a penalty in the sixth minute for a clear foul by Jamie Carragher on Wayne Rooney and Ronaldo had sent an effort against a post.

Liverpool, for all their brilliance in beating Inter Milan, were awful by comparison. Their inability even to keep possession bordered on the embarrassing, as did the problems they were experiencing at the back.

Anderson's ball for Rooney might have been a fine one but Carragher was still caught horribly out of position when he then threw himself, in vain, at the ball.

Mascherano was actually among the few Liverpool players who deserved any credit, so effective was he in rescuing defensively inferior colleagues. But the warning signs were there when he brought down Paul Scholes with a lunging challenge. He deserved the yellow card, and was wrong to respond to it in the fashion he did.

Mascherano mouth: The Liverpool midfielder is dismissed by Steve Bennett for protesting a free-kick

By the time he decided to question Bennett's decision to book Fernando Torres for dissent, he had already challenged the officials on two other occasions and he really was asking for trouble when he foolishly decided to have another go.

Ignoring manager Rafa Benitez and team-mate Xabi Alonso, who both tried to stop him, Mascherano rushed towards the referee to have his say and then reacted with a mixture of rage and incredulity when Bennett sent him off. The one-match ban he automatically receives will rule him out of next week's Merseyside derby, but the suspension could be extended to two or three games if the Football Association take a dim view of his actions after the second yellow card. Not only did he refuse to leave the field but he was also aggressive, to say the least.

Torres might have been a little unlucky to receive his booking for dissent but Mascherano was still stupid and his team-mates clearly thought so. Steven Gerrard looked like he wanted to strangle him, and Alonso was just as angry. Was he not aware of events at Tottenham earlier in the week? Was he oblivious to the fact that the FA have just launched a campaign demanding more respect for referees? Did he not realise that yesterday was a day when dissent was not going to be tolerated?

Prolific: Cristiano Ronaldo - head and shoulders above the rest - puts United two-up

Bennett has an unfortunate manner and a distinctly arrogant air that players clearly struggle to warm to. But he was the fourth official at Tottenham on Wednesday and he awoke yesterday morning to criticism from his boss. In an article in a Sunday newspaper, Keith Hackett suggested Bennett was at fault for failing to intervene and inform Mike Riley that Chelsea's Ashley Cole should have been sent off.

While an Argentine midfielder is unlikely to spot the thoughts of Hackett in a newspaper, he should at least have been aware of the climate in which this game, and indeed the later one at Stamford Bridge, was being played.

Listening to Benitez afterwards, it was clear Liverpool's players had not been warned to treat the match officials in the appropriate way. Just as it is clear that they will not learn for as long as Benitez blames the referee rather than the offending individual. Even if the Liverpool manager acknowledged that Mascherano 'made a mistake', it was a grudging acceptance that his player was at fault.

Cool: Nani wrapped up proceedings at Old Trafford

Ferguson called it right, identifying the fact that Mascherano had been 'badgering' Bennett and he called it right again when he made the changes that enabled his side to turn a one-goal lead into a commanding one.

The arrival of Nani changed the game, first when he provided a 79thminute corner that presented Ronaldo with the opportunity to head past a stranded Reina, and then when he found a screamer of a finish two minutes after that.

Reina produced a succession of fine saves but he flapped hopelessly at the cross that was met by Brown from the excellent Rooney and did so again in trying to punch Nani's corner to safety when Ronaldo pounced.

There was little the Spanish goalkeeper could do to stop Nani scoring United's third, the Portuguese dragging the ball past Martin Skrtel before unleashing a terrific right-foot shot.

A victory as richly deserved as the second yellow card that was shown to Mascherano.

TEAMS: Manchester United v Liverpool

Man Utd: Van der Sar, Brown, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Ronaldo, Scholes, Carrick, Anderson, Giggs, Rooney. Subs: Kuszczak, Hargreaves, Nani, O'Shea, Tevez.

Liverpool: Reina, Arbeloa, Carragher, Skrtel, Aurelio, Mascherano, Alonso, Kuyt, Gerrard, Babel, Torres. Subs: Itandje, Hyypia, Riise, Benayoun, Crouch.

Referee: Steve Bennett (Kent)

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