Liverpool produced a legendary Anfield display in the North-West’s flagship derby, beating eternal rivals Manchester United 7-0 to emphatically add fuel to their chase for a seventh straight top-four finish.
Liverpool lost at Old Trafford in August which brought their first league defeat in this fixture since 2018, Liverpool took charge of the opening exchanges. However, it was United dynamo Bruno Fernandes who spurned the game’s first golden chance, glancing his header narrowly wide from six yards out as both teams fought for control.
Casemiro’s headed goal was ruled out for offside at the end of half time, before Cody Gakpo gave Liverpool the lead with a composed finish from 10 yards, sending Anfield wild.
Darwin Núñez doubled the Reds’ lead just minutes into the second period. A dinked cross from youngster Harvey Elliott saw the Uruguayan unable to miss from a matter of yards, giving the Reds what looked like an unassailable lead.
United visibly imploded from there, quickly conceding a third that had a finer touch of class by comparison, with Mohamed Salah and Gakpo combining superbly before the Dutch forward applied the cheekiest of lobs which beat David de Gea and put Liverpool in dreamland.
It was just a matter of when the fourth would arrive, and Salah eventually obliged with 25 minutes to go, as the Egypt international smashed in an effort to become the first Liverpool player to score in six consecutive appearances against Manchester United.
The next goal on an awful afternoon for the Red Devils came in the form of another Núñez header, which saw hordes of visiting supporters leave the stadium.
Salah and Roberto Firmino tapped in goals number six and seven with insulting ease to cap off a thoroughly memorable afternoon for the Anfield faithful, while rubber-stamping Liverpool’s first seven-goal haul against the Red Devils since April 1916.
Liverpool now sit just three points adrift of fourth-placed Tottenham, while leaving the utterly annihilated visitors 14 points behind league leaders Arsenal.