Mohamed Salah became the first opposing player to score a hat trick at Old Trafford in Premier League history, as Liverpool destroyed a listless Manchester United.
Naby Keita and Diogo Jota got the ball rolling at Old Trafford with two early goals, before Salah all but sealed the game, with his dazzling triple. In fact, the way Salah was ramming through the United defense, it could have been much worse than the drubbing the scorecard settled on.
United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was having a bad day, and it got worse with Paul Pogba‘s red card, just 14 minutes after he had been introduced as a half-time substitute. Pogba got sent off for a nasty tackle on Naby Keïta, which saw him stretchered off the field.
Never in the Premier League era have Manchester United been four goals down at half-time, that too on their home ground.
The United fans’ boos were sustained as the anger festered. While many made their way back home at halftime, it was certainly a lonelier walk for Solskjær back into the tunnel. Many experts say that this could be the end of a manager who has struggled to keep afloat this season, despite being liked by United loyalists.
The second half was played out to a sneering send-up of the United manager as the Liverpool fans gleefully chortled about ‘Ole being at the wheel’ and joking that he should get to stay.
Cristiano Ronaldo seemed to not keep it together either, after he failed to beat Alisson from a Mason Greenwood pass and kicked out at Curtis Jones, who had come on for the injured James Milner. Ronaldo was shown a yellow card for the infraction, and was mostly unable to make any plays for much of the game to get United back into it.
Undefeated Liverpool (21 points) is now just two points behind Chelsea (22 points) for the top spot in the Premier League, while United is winless in four league matches and stuck in seventh place on 14 points, eight points off the pace after just nine matches in the season.