Boss Praises Owen & Anderson

Sir Alex Ferguson saluted the players making their first appearance against Liverpool after they helped to win his 50th game against the old enemy.

Anderson and Owen Hargreaves worked tirelessly in United's engine room to subdue Steven Gerrard and give the men in black the platform to claim their fifth win in six league visits to Anfield.

"Anderson was terrific, he wasn’t intimidated by Steven Gerrard," Sir Alex told MUTV.

"I thought he handled that particular part of the game really well. Steven was actually quite quiet today. Hargreaves has got more experience obviously. Both of them did a great job."

The Anderson-Hargreaves axis underpinned an effective team display in which grit outweighted the guile. That said, the goal which separated the great rivals was fashioned by a clever piece of setpiece play. Instead of delivering an inswinger from the right, Ryan Giggs arrowed a pass to Wayne Rooney from the corner and his shot was turned in by Carlos Tevez.

"Ryan had the opportunity to do that with the corner kick prior to that one," said Sir Alex. "He could have used Owen Hargreaves because the corner of the box was free.

"But we took that opportunity the second time around and of course from Wayne Rooney's deflected shot, Carlos scored."

One goal was enough to win it for United, just as it was last season when O'Shea scored and in 2005 when Rooney was the match winner. Chances were at a premium with neither goalkeeper called upon too frequently.

"It was a typical Liverpool-United game," assessed Sir Alex.

"The fans create such a fervour and it’s difficult for the referee. Flowing football isn’t the issue, it’s about winning the game. But in the moments when we did play football in the first half, we looked the better team.

"It’s a marvellous day for us - a good team performance and a great result. I said before the game that I feel the games between the top sides are going to be important this season. That’s an important win for us.

"At the moment we’re top (prior to Arsenal playing Chelsea) and I hope we stay there at the end of the day.

"It’s going to be a long struggle and a fight until the end of the season. But I’ve always said around December, if we can be top or thereabouts on New Year’s Day then we have an outstanding chance of retaining the title."