Manchester United v Liverpool: Premier League – live | Premier League

15 min Again, the head that gets to the ball in Liverpool’s area is the mighty one of Van Dijk.

14 min Zirksee gets a block in near the byline and wins a roar of approval. United come again and Rashford again wins a corner. He has justified Ten Hag’s faith so far.

13 min United regroup. Dalot fires in a cross from the left and Van Dijk heads it away for a throw.

10 min Liverpool are the better team now, playing some gorgeous passes. In United’s midfield only Kobbie Mainoo, serene as ever, seems able to cope. As Mac Allister recovers from a blow, Casemiro and Lisandro Martinez hold an inquest into the goal that wasn’t.

9 min The atmosphere was already rocking, now it’s boiling.

Back to 0-0 … Salah was offisde as the cross came in before TAA thumped in the follow-up.

An early blow for United’s new-look defence… but the VAR is looking at it.

5 min Van Dijk picks the pocket of Zirkzee and plays in Jota, who has never lost against Man United. He shoots wide, for once.

4 min United come again with Fernandes striding into the inside-left zone. He goes right rather than left and gets in a tangle with Joshua Zirkzee, allowing Liverpool to break.

2 min Rashford again, combining beautifully with Diogo Dalot and winning a corner… which Liverpool soon clear.

1 min United have the early possesion. They get the ball rapidly to Rashford, but TAA shepherds him back.

The players are out there and the crowd are making a lot of noise. Liverpool go into a huddle as the two Dutch managers have a quick hug.

A quick word for any United fans in the house. Rob Smyth and I, for our sins, have a free Substack called United Writing, which takes a close look at United’s ups and downs. Rob contributes some wonderful long reads, set in the past, while I try to make sense of the present. Last weekend I argued that the defeat at Brighton meant Erik ten Hag was already under pressure. He may be about to make that line look very silly.

“That is indeed a pleasingly simple potential explanation for Antony’s travails,” says Matt Dony. “It does, however, say very little for Ten Hag. He knew the Eredivisie, he knows the Premier League, and he knows Antony. If it was that simple, you would like to think he could have worked it out?” Ha, yes, but he didn’t know the Premier League very well when he splashed out on Antony, two years ago today. Maybe he has worked it out now, and that’s one reason why Antony is third choice on the right wing behind Garnacho and Amad.

“In terms of gamechangers,” says Rick Harris, “United do have Christian Eriksen, who has probably changed more games than Nunez, Gakpo, Elliott and Endo put together.” Ha, good point. With Mount injured and McTominay sold, he may now be Bruno Fernandes’s deputy as the No 10 – and he was sensational in that slot for Denmark against Slovenia at the Euros.

“A lot of chat about Liverpool’s contract situation,” says DDJ Stephens, “a lot about how Slot’s style is similar but more calm and patient… all good, but why is nobody talking about Nunez not getting any game time under Slot yet, despite his professed desire to make him the big nine for Liverpool?” I think he did come on for the last 20 minutes or so against Brentford, but point taken.

Newcastle held on to beat Spurs 2-1, while Chelsea could only draw 1-1 at home to Palace. Newcastle go fourth for now, behind Arsenal and Brighton on goal difference, but Liverpool need only a draw to leapfrog them. If Liverpool win, they will join Man City as the only clubs with a 100pc record after three games. Chelsea, for all their goals at Molineux, are 11th, two places and one point above Man United, who, if they win, will soar to seventh.

“You’re right about the lack of potential game-changers on United’s bench,” says Jon Collins, “but it really is an indictment of their transfer policy, and his performances in a United shirt, that Antony – a £86m winger – is neither a starter nor a useful substitute. Presumably he has little or no resale value, so are they stuck with him till his contract runs out?”

There will surely come a moment when he’s desperate for game time. A piece in the Sunday Times today posits a simple explanation for his struggles: in the Eredivisie, teams don’t double up on wingers, so at Ajax Antony often found himself one-v-one and able to cut inside and score. In the Premier League they do double up, so they can block off that avenue, and his lack of a strong right foot makes it hard for him to go round the outside.

In today’s other big game, Newcastle have just gone ahead against the run of play for the second time. Do join Taha Hashim for the final act of that drama.

The first email of the day comes in from Rick Harris. “Dutch managers of English PL clubs may not have lifted the title,” he says, “but they have won the FA Cup – Gullitt and Hiddink with Chelsea. Van Gaal and Ten Hag with United.” Very true. I wonder if that’s partly because they remembered watching the Cup final n the Netherlands when they were younger. Before this year’s final Erik ten Hag talked about that and the impression it made on him.

United’s bench is a curious one, with two goalkeepers and no full-backs. The only sub of theirs with the air of a game-changer is Amad, whereas Liverpool have some serious firepower in Darwin Nunez and Cody Gakpo.

Man United (possible 4-2-4-0) Onana; Mazraoui, De Ligt, Martinez, Dalot; Casemiro, Mainoo; Garnacho, Fernandes, Zirkzee, Rashford.

Subs: Bayindir, Heaton, Maguire, Evans, Collyer, Eriksen, Amad, Antony, Wheatley.

Liverpool (probable 4-2-1-3) Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Konate, Van Dijk, Robertson; Gravenberch, Mac Allister; Szoboszla; Salah, Jota, Diaz.

Subs: Kelleher, Bradley, Quansah, Gomez, Tsimikas, Endo, Elliott, Nunez, Gakpo.

Referee Anthony Taylor.

After a serene August, Arne Slot sticks with a winning team in September. Even the bench is the same as it was against Brentford – no sign of Federico Chiesa yet.

As expected, Erik ten Hag bring Joshua Zirkzee in to replace Mason Mount. As not so expected, he replaces Harry Maguire with Matthijs de Ligt. When he did that last weekend with a substitution, United were suddenly disorganised. And there’s a third change as Alejandro Garnacho comes in on the right wing for Amad, who ejected Liverpool from the FA Cup with his last-gasp winner.

Afternoon everyone and welcome to the biggest game of the weekend. Man United v Liverpool is a rancorous old rivalry that, even in the age of Man City, still pits the club with the most league titles (United, 20) against the one with the next-most (Liverpool, 19). The Old Trafford crowd may just find a way of mentioning that.

Today’s game will be just like many a meeting between the two sides and, in one way, quite different. It appears to be the first big-six meeting ever involving a Dutch manager on either side. You wait decades for a big English clash between two Dutch managers and then find that actually there are four of them, as Erik ten Hag now has two more as his right-hand men – Ruud van Nistelrooy, who has managed PSV Eindhoven, and Rene Hake, who, like Ten Hag, has managed Go Ahead Eagles.

When they shake hands, Ten Hag and Arne Slot will look interchangeable with their shaven heads and friendly faces, but as Premier League managers they are already chalk and Dutch cheese. Slot has instantly established himself as a reluctant shopper and a considered strategist with a clear style. Without exactly renouncing Klopp-ball, he has added a twist of patience and gained more control.

The upshot, in his first two Premier League games, has been a pair of 2-0 wins. That’s as many as United managed in the whole of last season. It’s not just the results that bother United fans: as Ten Hag hangs on for a third autumn in Manchester, it’s still hard to say what his style is.

While Liverpool invested in just one player over the summer (Federico Chiesa, for £10m, a third of his market value according to Transfermarkt), Ten Hag and his new colleagues bought five for about 18 times that. The latest recruit is Manuel Ugarte – yes, Man U have brought in a man called Man U – but he wasn’t registered in time to play today. The only attacker among the five, Joshua Zirkzee, may get a first start as Mason Mount is injured again and Scott McTominay, to the disappointment of many supporters, is no longer there.

No Dutch manager has ever won the Premier League, or even come second. For all his success in the domestic cups, it’s hard to picture Ten Hag changing that. Slot has a more realistic chance, though he may have to wait until Pep Guardiola gets bored of giving us his thoughts on hat-tricks from Erling Haaland.

United overperformed against Liverpool last season, somehow contriving to win once and draw twice while going out of their way to concede as many shots as possible. Today feels as if it might just be payback time. But it’s a derby, so anything could happen, or nothing.