Such a significant moment for him and for Liverpool, who had experienced enough punishment at the hands of United to have a major insecurity complex. When the visitors eased into the lead before the clock had struck three minutes, a familiar sense of unease swept around Anfield - with the exception of the predictably cocky visitors. It was eight Premier League matches and counting that Liverpool had not beaten United.

That it did not become nine owed much to the home team's willingness to respond. They summoned enough positive energy to ensure that even Sir Alex Ferguson could have no complaints. The Manchester United manager admitted that his team were out-hassled and out-tackled, and notably Liverpool did that fairly enough to end the match without a single booking. To add to Liverpool's sense of satisfaction, this triumph came without much assistance from their two most influential players, neither of whom was fit enough to play a major part. Fernando Torres was a spectator, while Steven Gerrard came on only midway through the second half.

And so Liverpool topped the lunchtime table, with a six-point advantage over the current champions. The feelgood factor that generates is not lost on the players. 'We've been off the pace for far too long and it gives us confidence to know we've just beaten the best side in Europe,' observed Jamie Carragher.

Liverpool also possessed the most impressive debutant of the match, as Alberto Riera, their newly arrived £8m winger, overshadowed Dimitar Berbatov.

It had all looked so promising for United. It took just two-and-a-half minutes to re-exert the superiority they have become used to in this most hostile of arenas thanks to an instant connection between Carlos Tevez and Berbatov. The Argentine's pass released his new team-mate, who outmanoeuvred Carragher and rolled the ball back into a swathe of space soon to be filled by Tevez. He applied the finishing touch with a swaggering curl.

For the first five minutes United's new No 9 looked every inch the £30m-piece-of-the-jigsaw Berbatov. But for the remaining 85 minutes he regressed into the Tottenham-awayday, totally uninterested, hands-on-hips Berbatov.

Through sheer determination, Liverpool found themselves a foothold. Javier Mascherano and Xabi Alonso wrestled control of midfield, Dirk Kuyt and Robbie Keane chased like demons, and it was a worry for United that after their opening salvo they were able to test Pepe Reina so infrequently. The great new attacking trident evidently needs time to bed in.

Liverpool are entitled to feel they deserve a teeny bit of luck from this fixture, and they got plenty in the 27th minute: Alonso's speculative shot made contact with three United players en route to the net. Patrice Evra deflected the ball into no man's land between Edwin van der Sar and Wes Brown and when the keeper flapped the ball at the defender's knee the ball trickled over the line.

Liverpool's improvement continued after the interval and a series of threatening crosses from the left required emergency defending by United. But try as Kuyt and Keane might, there was a conspicuous Torres-sized hole in Liverpool's attack. Without him, they still lack edge.

Half-chances came and went. Van der Sar stooped to save from Yossi Benayoun. Keane, a few yards out, flashed a boot at the ball, but could not make contact. On came Gerrard, only for his first meaningful intervention to give Liverpool a scare, as he was dispossessed by Ryan Giggs, who challenged Reina with a dipping volley.

Considering Rio Ferdinand looked after most of the buzzing movement from Kuyt and Keane without seeming to break out of second gear, it was frustrating for United that the goals they conceded were avoidable. Liverpool's moment of catharsis arrived when Mascherano drove down the right and showed sufficient persistence to draw Giggs and Nemanja Vidic towards the byline. The ball broke away from all of them and was pickpocketed by Kuyt, who tapped the ball back to Ryan Babel. Suddenly it was mayhem on the Kop. Liverpool exorcised the curse. All those barren matches, all that frustration, came pouring out as the Dutchman clipped the ball on the bounce high into the net.

Benítez's reaction was to look down at his watch and bite his nails. But he need not have worried as United lost their composure. They picked up two bookings in quick succession for cynical tackles. Nemanja Vidic's was compounded by a second yellow card and a red, for a needless barge on Xabi Alonso in stoppage time.