Manchester United beat Liverpool 3-1 at Old Trafford in the first match between these two sides this season. Daley Blind with a sweet free-kick, Ander Herrera and Anthony Martial with a beautiful strike on his debut were the scorers as United scored with all three of their shots on target as Christian Benteke replied for Liverpool in a comprehensive win for United.

The same result this time around in the return fixture at Anfield would certainly go down well with United fans given the improved attacking performance against Newcastle in midweek only this time LVG will hope that his usually reliable defense will return to form and his attack continues their recent incisive play from the Newcastle and Swansea games.

United have recent history on their side vs Liverpool as they have won 6 of the last 8 Premier League games with the scousers only winning 2 games. United even hold the edge in the last 4 matches played at Anfield having won 2 matches with Liverpool only having won once and there has been a single draw.

Not surprisingly given the customary spicy nature of this derby match only Liverpool against Everton with 20 has seen more red cards than this fixture in Premier League history which has 16.

In an expected change from the game against Newcastle where Juan Mata surprisingly was left out we can expect LVG to restore the Spanish genius to the United line-up. In his previous 6 Premier League appearances against Liverpool Mata has scored three goals and assisted on four more. Surely Mata will get the chance to enhance his statistics and more importantly help United put 3 points on the board vs Liverpool in Sunday’s lunchtime kick-off. Wayne Rooney looks like a likely scorer too in this match given his recent return to form and fitness.

Another stat which favours the red-devils is that Liverpool have been beaten 11 times at Anfield which is more losses than by any other visiting team in the Premier League.

In an interesting aside current Liverpool manager, Jurgen Klopp suffered his worst loss during his spell as Borussia Dortmund manager when Louis Van Gaal’s Bayern Munich side thumped them 5-1 at Dortmund in September 2009.

So given United’s recent improvement in attack and Liverpool’s inconsistent defensive form we think a 3-2 United win is on the cards.