Maguire stars as United inflict more misery on Reds

Ruben Amorim will always have Anfield.

- RICHARD JOLLY

A reign that has brought many a historic low finally has the right kind of landmark result. As Manchester United belatedly recorded back-to-back league wins for the first time under the Portuguese, they triumphed on Liverpool's home turf for the first time in almost a decade. Louis van Gaal, the previous United manager to take three points here, was sacked four months later, so this is no guarantee that Amorim will get three years, as Sir Jim Ratcliffe wants, but both the result and the manner of it felt genuinely auspicious.

And so it was Arne Slot who was left to contemplate a slump of unexpectedly seismic proportions and who was swathed in unflattering statistics. This is the first Liverpool side since 2014 to lose four matches in a row, which is not a good look for a team that underwent a £450m makeover. They were beaten at Anfield in the Premier League for the first time in 13 months. Late goals have been a story of Liverpool's season, but now they rue them. They have started to concede early on, too. They did both: behind after 62 seconds to Bryan Mbeumo, they were beaten by Harry Maguire's 84th-minute decider.

So Maguire, who almost got a winner at Anfield in January, mustered one nine months later. The centre-back's late heroics have been one of the most uplifting features of Amorim's tenure. Another has been United's ability to prove inspired underdogs and raise their game against the best. United have won too few games under the Portuguese, but they have now beaten Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester City and, including a penalty shootout, Arsenal.

Arguably, this was the best of the lot. “I think that was the biggest win in my time at Manchester United,” said Amorim. He also delivered a self-deprecating aside. “I don’t have many wins in Manchester,” he said.