Manchester United overcame their disappointing start to the season by further compounding Liverpool's poor start to the campaign when Erik ten Hag's men won 2-1 at Old Trafford on Monday night.
An impressive display from United, a far cry from their last outing against Brentford, saw the Red Devils go two up before the hour mark thanks to goals by Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford.
Liverpool, who didn't look to be anywhere near the levels that they can usually achieve, did manage to pull one back thanks to a Mo Salah header on 81 minutes but it wasn't enough for them to salvage anything from the match.
While a jubilant United now look buoyed by this result, Liverpool, who are yet to win this season, will have to reassess things with manager Jurgen Klopp having a lot of problems to deal with, most notably the underperformances of their usually reliable centre back Virgil Van Dijk.
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The 31-year-old Dutch defender was arguably at fault for United's first goal as he stood with his hands behind his back while Sancho controlled the ball before calmly slotting it into the bottom corner.
Unfortunately for Van Dijk the world of football fans is an unforgiving one and his unusual way of defending, in particular the stance he took, has been ridiculed and transformed into memes.
\u201cSuch a great goal from Sancho and it's even better from this angle. Look how he masterfully curled the ball around Van Dijk's Aura.\u201d— Tom Levins (@Tom Levins) 1661197827
\u201cI\u2019m in tears. Van Dijk has been cooked today \ud83d\ude2d\ud83d\ude2d\u201d— \u2079 8x\ud83c\udfc6 (@\u2079 8x\ud83c\udfc6) 1661204227
\u201cVan Dijk when it\u2019s time to commit a tackle\u201d— Raf (@Raf) 1661197607
\u201cVan Dijk using the smell of his Dior Sauvage to stop Sancho from shooting\u201d— RZ (@RZ) 1661195960
\u201cVan Dijk as Sancho took five minutes to size up that shot\u201d— Art de Roch\u00e9 (@Art de Roch\u00e9) 1661195890
\u201cVan Dijk looking at Sancho before he scored.\u201d— BeksFCB (@BeksFCB) 1661196023
\u201cVan Dijk defending that Sancho goal like he\u2019s about to burst into Wonderwall\u2026.. #MUNLIV\u201d— Grovesy (@Grovesy) 1661200019
\u201cVirgil van Dijk had a front row view of Sancho's goal \ud83d\ude05\u201d— ESPN FC (@ESPN FC) 1661197133
\u201cSancho gave Virgil van Dijk a front row seat.\u201d— Juliet Bawuah (@Juliet Bawuah) 1661197319
\u201cYou said the first person to shout out the answer wins\u201d— Darren Richman (@Darren Richman) 1661198829
Liverpool, who are currently 16th in the Premier League table now face newly promoted Bournemouth in their next game. Meanwhile, United will look to build on their success in their next outing against Southampton.
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