Published: 19:37, 19 October 2025 | Updated: 19:38, 19 October 2025

Sir Alex Ferguson stood in the Main Stand at Anfield at half time, wearing a broad smile. The former Manchester United manager has not had much to celebrate at the home of his old enemy for the last ten years but now, with his old team a goal up and looking good, he held a bag of chocolates in his hand and offered one to the gentleman next to him, who happened to be Sir Kenny Dalglish.

As an image of the what happened here on a blustery, squally afternoon by the banks of the River Mersey, a symbol of how United found an echo of their former glories and transformed their miserable fortunes by winning at this ground for the first time in nearly a decade, it took some beating.

Then again, the sight of Harry Maguire, a yeoman centre half who seems to have been written off, mocked and derided for his limitations since the day he arrived at Old Trafford, rising to score United’s late winner and seal a 2-1...