Fuck me. Losing 4-1 at home to the dippers. I was thinking on the way back that it doesn’t get much worse than this. Then I realised that it actually could be at lot worse than this. We could be four points behind them, as well as them having a game in hand on us.

This is their day today and it will be the press’ day tomorrow. After building us up, claiming the quintuple is ours, they will thoroughly enjoy tearing a strip off us tomorrow, as they should do.

Whilst 4-1 isn’t a fair reflection of the game today, Liverpool certainly deserved to win. We’ve made mistakes at the back before today and got away with them. Today, we gifted Liverpool three goals and unlike Inter Milan and most other teams we’ve made mistakes against this season, they actually made us pay for them. It didn’t matter that we had more shots, had more possession, a better passing and tackling completion rate. All that mattered was Vidic dithered and gave Torres a goal, Evra showed bad judgement and slid in to give away a penalty, and Vidic chose to rugby tackle Gerrard instead of letting him go past him. Three mistakes, three goals.

Whilst it’s a painful result, one no doubt we will be reminded of for years to come, the important thing is we’re still in the driving seat. Liverpool had to win today, we didn’t. With 11 men on the park we were still in it, but it was game over as soon as Vidic was off.

I also must note there was no booing at the final whistle. Given Liverpool fans deafening boos following their 0-0 draw with West Ham, taking them top of the league a few months back, it was nice to see the contrast with our fans, who suffered a humiliating defeat to our hated rivals, but sang a chorus of “We love United, we do!” as our team trudged towards the tunnel. Whilst plenty of fans had left by this point, there were still enough there in the ground to make our song heard over the celebrating Liverpool fans. The idea of booing a team at the top of the table always seemed ridiculous to me, but seeing how our fans responded today just shows how ridiculous Anfield was a few months ago. What they’d give to be cheering their team off as those at the top of the table now!

Shit day at the office, no question, but any Liverpool fan with sense would trade their position for ours, even with their great result today. They have dropped 11 points in the league in the time United have dropped 3. If winning 4-1 at Old Trafford convinces their fans Rafa Benitez is good enough to win the league and he hasn’t lost the plot, then good for them, I hope the owners feel the same way and the Rafalution continues for as long as possible. I’ll take a 4-1 defeat once a year if it means we’re lifting the trophy in May.

Top of the league, and that’s a fact!