Liverpool brought Manchester United’s bandwagon to a halt as Cody Gakpo, Darwin Nunez, and Mohamed Salah all scored twice in a 7-0 thrashing of their arch-rivals at Anfield on March 5, 2023, to boost their Premier League top-four hopes. A week after a resurgent United won their first trophy since 2017 by winning the League Cup, and amid talk of a title challenge, they were blown out either side of halftime by Liverpool, who recorded their largest ever margin of victory in the fixture. United had looked the better side for the first 43 minutes, but it turned into an Anfield horror show for Erik ten Hag’s side, who suffered their worst defeat since a 7-0 loss to Wolverhampton Wanderers in 1931.
Gakpo’s brilliant finish from Liverpool’s first shot on goal gave the hosts a halftime lead. Within five minutes of the restart, Nunez made it 2-0 with a header after some comical United defending, before a lightning Liverpool counter-attack led by Salah ended with Gakpo finishing in style for 3-0. With United in disarray and losing their heads, Salah chimed in with his fourth goal in the 66th minute, and Nunez followed with a header past helpless goalkeeper David De Gea in the 75th. However, there was more to come.
Salah rubbed salt into United wounds with a close-range effort to score a record 129th Premier League goal for the club, taking him past the mark of Robbie Fowler. Roberto Firmino then came off the bench to send Juergen Klopp’s side into seventh heaven although by that stage most of United’s army of followers had headed for the exits.
Liverpool had thrashed United 4-0 at Anfield last April, but given the two clubs’ fortunes since then, this result was a major surprise. United’s demoralising defeat, described as a “disgrace” by Sky Sports pundit and former defender Gary Neville, dropped them to third place on 49 points, effectively eliminating them from the title race. They are 14 points behind leaders Arsenal, who have played one more game. Liverpool’s fourth win in five league games moved them up to fifth place on 42 points, three points behind fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspur with a game in hand.
“It was a fantastic day for everyone,” Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson said, according to Sky Sports. “Today’s performance level from every single player was top quality, which is something we’ve been missing for a while.” Today, you could see the energy levels returning and everything was back to normal, though to be fair, the last few Premier League games had shown that we were on the right track.”
Liverpool’s previous biggest win over United came in 1895, when both clubs were in the second division.
