Man United 3-0 Liverpool, by Simon Williams at Old Trafford

The 191st meeting between Manchester United and Liverpool ended in a 3-0 win for the Old Trafford club thanks to goals from Wayne Rooney, Juan Mata and Robin van Persie.

Liverpool dominated the opening exchanges and should have taken the lead through Raheem Sterling whose shot was saved by man-of-the-match David de Gea.

But United quickly turned defence into offence and were ahead moments later, Rooney slotting the ball past Brad Jones — in for Simon Mignolet who was relegated to the bench — after good work from Antonio Valencia down the right.

And the home side doubled their lead five minutes before the break through Mata.

The Spaniard, who was at least three yards offside at the back post, nodded the ball home after Ashley Young’s cross from the left had been flicked on by van Persie in the box.

Van Persie made sure of the points midway through the second half after some poor defending from Dejan Lovren.

The Croatians clearance fell to Mata, who in turn fed the unmarked Dutchman to net his seventh goal in 10 games against Liverpool.

The victory extended United’s winning run in the Premier League to six games but manager Louis van Gaal refused to be drawn on whether his side were now genuine title contenders.

He said: “I think the most important match is always the next match and we have to see match by match.

“We are winning now and six matches in a row is fantastic but we have to still improve our style of play.”

But knowing the fierce rivalry between the two clubs, van Gaal was happy for the win. He said: “We are very pleased with the win because we know what it is to win against Liverpool. Everybody is happy. My cook is happy. Also my wife is happy. So then I am also happy.”

For Liverpool, 21 points from 16 games is the club’s lowest total at this stage of a season since 1964-65 as pressure begins to grow on manager Brendan Rodgers.

“I didn’t think we deserved to be on the end of that scoreline but they (Manchester United) were much more clinical in the times of the game they needed to be,” said Rodgers.

“We created enough chances to win the game but we also made defensive mistakes.

“It probably epitomised our season, we’re not prolific enough in terms of goalscoring.”