Watch and Learn, Gerrard Tells Premier League As Ferguson Claims Best Team Lost

Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson was defiant following his side's 4-1 defeat, and even argued that the best team had lost the match. The result ended an unbeaten run for United that stretched back to November. The result also meant Liverpool closed the gap at the top of the Premier League to just four points, but Ferguson maintained his confidence that United would win the title.

"If the league started now and we had a four-point start I would take it," he said. "There is no complacency on our part," said Ferguson. "We have lost a game. We need to respond and that is what we will do. It is a hard one to take because I felt we were the better team," he said. "That is not reflected in the scoreline and quite rightly, when you win 4-1 you get all the plaudits. I can't deny that."

United started brightly, and took the lead when Cristiano Ronaldo converted a penalty created when Liverpool keeper Pepe Reina was adjudged to have brought Ji-Sung Park down in the box. But the rest of the match belonged to Liverpool with Fernando Torres' equalizer sparking a remarkable come-back win, which Liverpool Steven Gerrard hailed as 'magnificent'. The Liverpool captain went on to predict the result could be a catalyst for the Reds to snatch the Premier League title from league leaders United, with a little help from other teams inspired by the result.

"The important thing is that we have made the gap smaller," said Gerrard. "We realize that Manchester United are a fantastic team and there's still a lot of work to do. We'll need a little bit of luck along the way but hopefully that gives teams that are going to play against Manchester United a bit of belief that they can be beaten. And hopefully it will give us a lot of confidence to go on and win as many games as we can.

"I've been lucky enough to experience winning here before and that was also a magnificent feeling, but to score a goal after all the stick I've had from United fans over the last 10 years - well, it's nice to score and rub it in a bit.

"It was magnificent, a great team performance. From front to back we worked very hard today, showed great character after going a goal down and it was a magnificent win. In the end it was comfortable with a man being sent off, but I think we were men today, we controlled the game. It's not very often you see Manchester United getting beat 4-1 at home."

Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez was full of praise for his players after their second four-goal performance of the week following Tuesday's demolition of Real Madrid in the Champions League at Anfield. He maintained that his side could yet overhaul United to become Premier League champions.

"I have good players with a good mentality and character," he said. "The players had confidence before the game and then worked very hard to play well against a very good team. We have beaten Real Madrid and Manchester United in the same week. If we can beat them, we can beat anybody. Realistically, we have to win all of our games. We have more belief and more confidence now. It will be difficult but we can do it."