Liverpool 0-0 Manchester United: 10-man visitors grab a point as Erik ten Hag's side survive Anfield trip after last season's humiliation while hosts miss chance to go top of the Premier League

Manchester United and fortitude have become strangers these past few years but on Sunday evening at Anfield, overwhelmed by Liverpool’s rolling red tide, their defence staged a heroic match-long feat of defiance to keep Jurgen Klopp’s team at bay and confound expectations that they would be humiliated again by their rivals.

Last season, Erik ten Hag’s side were the victims of an embarrassing 7-0 mauling here and some had predicted a repeat. It didn’t happen. Instead, after the feast came the famine. 

And the credit for that went, in particular, to United’s central defensive partnership of Jonny Evans and Raphael Varane, left back Luke Shaw and stand-in skipper Scott McTominay..

Evans and Varane might seem like an odd couple but they combined magnificently last night. United have become known as a capricious, complacent, over-entitled collection of spoiled superstars but they were the opposite of that as they obstinately refused to let Liverpool claim the win that would have taken them back to the top of the table.

They offered very little going forward – Rasmus Hojlund touched the ball four times in the first half - and so there is a limit to the plaudits that they deserve. They have become an average side. But at least they stood up for something here. 

At least they stood up for their increasingly beleaguered manager. Many had begun to doubt that they had a performance like this in them.

For Liverpool, the match was 90 minutes of pure frustration. They threw everything they could at United and Trent Alexander-Arnold was the best home player on the pitch by a distance, constantly probing and pressing and finding searching passes. But they lacked a cutting edge.

Liverpool looked like a very good side slightly flattered by starting the day at the top of the Premier League. Klopp has done a brilliant job to manage their transition so seamlessly but they are still a new team finding a new rhythm and getting to know each other. They did not quite have the subtlety and the understanding to break United down.

They had started the match in third place after earlier wins for Arsenal and Aston Villa had knocked them off the top of the table. They ended it in second, moving above Villa on goal difference. Many still see Arsenal and Manchester City as the leading contenders for the title.

Before the game, it had seemed a neat symbol of the malaise gripping United that they should be forced to start the match without their captain Bruno Fernandes because he possessed neither the discipline nor the sense of duty to avoid getting booked late in a game against Bournemouth that United had already lost and so being suspended for this fixture.

Fernandes did not have the wit to realise that this game means more and that it particularly meant more after United’s embarrassing capitulation here and the fact that he, like most of his teammates that day, went missing when his club and his manager most needed him to stand up.

His absence had two positive effects. It meant the armband went to McTominay, who has consistently played above himself this season in the midst of adversity, and that Ten Hag was able to give another starting opportunity to Kobbie Mainoo. Sometimes, it feels hard to see a bright future for United, but when it arrives, Mainoo will be part of it.

Liverpool began as if they wanted to ensure United’s revival is a long time coming. The started like a whirlwind. Roared on by the Kop, they forced three corners in the first four minutes in front of the great bank of their supporters.

United looked overwhelmed. Better teams than United would have been cowed by the wall of noise coming at them. Sofyan Amrabat, who still looks off the pace of English football, kicked off the line after a minute, Darwin Nunez flung himself at a clever lob from Mohamed Salah. United desperately tried to find a foothold in the game.

United just about weathered the early storm but, oppressed by Liverpool’s pressure, they kept losing possession and playing themselves back into trouble. When Andre Onana dropped a catch under pressure, the ball fell to Salah six yards out but the goalkeeper atoned for his error by deflecting Salah’s shot wide.

Nunez was booked for a shuddering body-check on Jonny Evans and Mainoo was shown a yellow card for a late tackle on Wataru Endo before a Virgil van Dijk header from a corner was acrobatically turned over the bar by Onana. Liverpool were still very much on top but they could not find the final pass.

Liverpool started the second half much as they had started the first but ten minutes into it, they got a warning of what could yet happen if they did not convert their dominance into goals when United hit them on the break.

The ball was worked to Mainoo, who switched it superbly to Alejandro Garnacho and Garnacho forced his way in front of Alexander-Arnold. Garnacho shaped to curl a right foot shot around Alisson but before he could make contact, Alexander-Arnold made a fine recovery tackle and poked the ball back to Alisson.

Liverpool were looking increasingly towards Alexander-Arnold to make something happen and midway through the half, he nearly broke the deadlock. Salah held the ball up and then saw Alexander-Arnold racing forward towards the edge of the box. He laid the ball into his path and Alexander-Arnold curled it agonisingly wide.

United conjured another rare foray forward when McTominay played Hojlund in behind the home defence but the Denmark forward hit his shot too close to Alisson, who blocked it with his chest and the ball ran away to safety.

Liverpool redoubled their efforts. Nunez surged into the box and when the ball ran on to Luis Diaz, it took the combined efforts of Onana and Evans to keep it out. A minute later, Ibrahima Konate turned beautifully in the box but his snap shot flew straight into the arms of Onana.

Five minutes from the end, Liverpool thought they had a penalty. Kostas Tsimikas curled a cross into the box with pace and it bounced up on the turf and appeared to hit Shaw on the arm. VAR checked the incident and Michael Oliver, who had had an ex excellent game, waved play on.

Liverpool had one last chance deep into added time when substitute Cody Gakpo rose umarked to meet an Alexander-Arnold free kick ten yards out but headed it high over the bar.

Diogo Dalot was sent off in the dying seconds for an absurd overreaction to a throw-in that went against him. His anger was so unrestrained that he received two yellows in the space of a few seconds. Frustration dominated this game from start to finish.