Anderson and Owen praised

Sir Alex Ferguson saluted the players making their first appearance against Liverpool after they helped to win his 50th game against the old enemy.

Anderson and Owen Hargreaves worked tirelessly in midfield to subdue Steven Gerrard and give United the platform to claim their fifth win in six league visits to Anfield.

"Anderson was terrific, he wasn’t intimidated by Steven Gerrard," Sir Alex told MUTV.

"I thought he handled that particular part of the game really well. Steven was actually quite quiet today. Hargreaves has got more experience obviously. Both of them did a great job."

The Anderson-Hargreaves axis underpinned an effective team display in which grit outweighed the grace. That said, the goal which separated the great rivals was fashioned by a clever piece of setpiece play. Instead of delivering an inswinger from the right, Giggs arrowed a pass to Rooney from the corner and his shot was turned in by Tevez.

"Ryan had the opportunity to do that with the corner kick prior to that one," said Sir Alex. "He could have used Owen Hargreaves because the corner of the box was free.

"But we took that opportunity the second time around and of course from Wayne Rooney's deflected shot, Carlos scored."

One goal was enough to win a game of few clearcut chances, just as it was last season when O'Shea scored at Anfield and in 2005 when Rooney was the match-winner there.

"This was a typical Liverpool-United game," assessed Sir Alex.

"The fans create such a fervour and it’s difficult for the referee. Flowing football isn’t the issue, it’s about winning the game. But in the moments when we did play football in the first half, we looked the better team.

"It’s a marvellous day for us - a good team performance and a great result. I said before the game that I feel the games between the top sides are going to be important this season.

"This is an important win for us. At the moment we’re top (prior to Arsenal playing Chelsea) and I hope we stay there at the end of the day.

"It’s going to be a long struggle to the end of the season. But if we can be top or thereabouts on New Year’s Day, we'll have an outstanding chance of retaining the title."