Liverpool Beat Brighton as Manchester United Lose 3-0 to Bournemouth
Liverpool beat Brighton and Hove Albion 2-0 at Anfield on 25 October, while Manchester United lost 3-0 to Bournemouth on the same day.
Liverpool did not need the ball to win. They had only 35.6% possession, meaning they held it for barely a third of the match, according to ESPN's live coverage. Brighton kept the ball more but could not turn that into goals. Liverpool took their chances and the two goals were enough.
The result was a bad one for Manchester United. The Guardian's live blog described manager Michael Carrick as being on the brink after the defeat. Carrick's position has been questioned since the loss, and the club has not yet said what it will do.
The most pointed remarks came from the studio. Toby Alderweireld, a former Tottenham and Belgium defender, and Ashley Williams, a former Wales defender, were the pundits, meaning the experts who analyse matches on television. Alderweireld suggested there was no "togetherness" in the Manchester United squad, a word that describes players pulling in the same direction. BBC Sport carried his comments in its video analysis of the match.
Alderweireld and Williams also picked apart Liverpool's win on Match of the Day, the BBC's highlights programme. That video is available to UK viewers only.
The same Premier League round also saw Newcastle win away at Crystal Palace. Results like that matter because the league table is a running count of who is doing well, and every win moves a club up or down it. A round of fixtures can shift the mood of a whole season in a single afternoon.
For Liverpool supporters, the lesson is that a win does not always need to look pretty. For Manchester United, the question is less about one defeat and more about whether a squad can show the unity its own pundits say is missing.
