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Liverpool
Liverpool's performance at Old Trafford wasn't merely the best of any side this season to date, it was a display that transcended their suggested capabilities.
This was a different Liverpool than previously seen - not the Liverpool of stifle that won in the Bernabeu or the dour Benitez side of stereotype, but a Liverpool side of control and precision, of speed and discipline, of imagination and ambition. It was remarkable to behold because it was so unexpected and so ruthlessly complete in its execution. If the sole disappointment of their afternoon was the final whistle signalling the end of their fun, it wasn't long before Sir Alex Ferguson sealed their day of delight by announcing that United had been the better side. How Liverpool must have laughed at that. How they ought to. Their superiority was vast.
In Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres, Liverpool boasted the two best players on the pitch, the former relishing the freedom of centre of stage and the latter providing a convincing audition to be regarded as the world's best striker. A small point amid the tributes: he is as much a fierce competitor as he is an athlete and clinical finisher.
The point has been made elsewhere that were Torres to have remained fit for the entire campaign - he has missed 13 of their 29 league games so far and started just nine in combination with Gerrard - then Liverpool might well be in pole position instead of four points adrift. It is certainly a sustainable argument. His reawakening at Old Trafford is only likely to breathe temporary life back into the title race - Liverpool still need United to lose three of their remaining games to catch up and the fact, to borrow Rafa's favourite word, is that only two different teams have beaten them in the league in the past 13 months - but if it is asked in the previews to the next campaign how and where Liverpool can improve then Torres' injury record can be given as the definitive answer. Where there is Torres, there is always hope.
Owen Hargreaves
The absence of Hargreaves since September has barely been noticed but the midfielder, the only 'natural' holding player in United's squad, was badly missed by the champions on Saturday. If the key to Liverpool's triumph were the performances of Gerrard and Torres, then the key to their influence was the appreciation and exploitation of the chasm between United's malfunctioning midfield and leaden defence. Time and time again, Liverpool's match winners collected possession in the area that a screening midfielder, such as Hargreaves, would have patrolled and it remains something of a mystery why the gap was not plugged by Michael Carrick or Anderson. In general, the jury is out on the Brazilian but both he and the equally-poor Carrick were guilty of inexplicable tactical ignorance this weekend.
Alan Wiley
Unobtrusive, even-handed, brave and unfussy. Howard Webb, whose clichéd status as the league's number one referee is courtesy of his physical authority rather than decision-making qualities, could learn plenty.
Andrei Arshavin
The shame of Arsenal's season has been their injury record and the six-month delay in signing Arshavin (a consequence, maybe, of Arsene Wenger apparently believing throughout the summer that Tomas Rosicky would return in September). The Russian was the outstanding individual performer against Blackburn and his display was reason enough to believe that next season will be better for the Gunners than the current campaign. His is a special talent.
The quandary for Wenger is just where is best to deploy Arshavin. The even-handed ability to play in numerous positions is exclusive to only a select band of players and the 27-year-old's four-match career in England has already seen him in three. Having started against Blackburn in a central support role, Arshavin was moved to the left for the second half and it was from there that he scored his match-settling goal. In the longer term, Wenger may have to consider a more radical revision, dismantling his favoured 4-4-2 formation for a system that would offer a platform for Arshavin, Cesc Fabregas, Theo Walcott and either Samir Nasri or Rosicky in combination behind a single striker.
Tottenham Hotspur
Third in the Form Table after losing just one of their last eight matches, Spurs are now just four points adrift of a place in the league table that would probably qualify them for the rejigged and renamed UEFA Cup next season. It would be a curious reward for Harry Redknapp after he rejected the competition last month in order to concentrate on domestic matters.
Chelsea
No team makes a single-goal victory look as comfortable as Chelsea.
Michael Essien
An under-appreciated player who actually brings the dynamism to the Chelsea midfield that Michael Ballack was hired at a cost of £140,000 a week to provide.
Losers
Nemanja Vidic
The Serbian has, on the whole, been superb this season. Yet his humiliation at the quick feet of Torres and Gerrard was perhaps, albeit with the benefit of hindsight, not that great a surprise. If Vidic has a flaw, it is a lack of pace on the turn and he is slow to disguise it against top-level opponents.
His dismissal for hauling down Gerrard with a rugby-style tackle was his second of the league campaign and similar to the offences that saw him dismissed at Anfield six months ago and cautioned at Newcastle earlier this month. And that charge sheet is generous: in November, Vidic should also have been sent off at both Villa and Arsenal for professional-foul shirt-pulls on Gabriel Agbonlahor and Samir Nasri after his lack of pace was exposed. The leniency and inaccuracy of officialdom saved him then but, all of a sudden courtesy of Gerrard and Wiley, his flaw is finally out in the open and ripe for exploitation.
Wayne Rooney
What a silly boy.
Manchester United
First, the disclaimer: Saturday's defeat should matter not in influencing the destination of the title. With a game in hand and a four-point lead, United still have one hand on the title and remain odds-on favourites (1/10 to be precise).
Yet it matters because such humiliations are difficult to forget, especially against such intense and local rivals. Even if United avoid long-term scarring, their cloak of invincibility has been punctured and the sight of a quarter-full Old Trafford at the final whistle will remain one of the season's enduring images. It matters, too, because the rest of Europe will know the English champions are from far invincible and any claims of greatness proclaimed at the end of the season - whether from a triple, quadruple or quintuple - will be attacked with gusto by United's record against top-class level.
It is, of course, natural that any team should fare better against middling opposition. But United's record against their top-level peers is too ghastly to be dismissed as par on a difficult course. If, as is reasonable, their most formidable opponents since last April were listed as Barcelona, Chelsea, Arsenal, Aston Villa, Liverpool and Inter Milan then United's record during that period would be Played 12, Won Three, Drawn Five, Lost Four.
Their manager remarked last week that winning the Champions League this season has become the club's priority. On Saturday, the importance of that task assumed a new perspective. It will only be by triumphing in Europe - something that can only be achieved with victories over the elite - that the charge of Flat-Track Bullying can be refuted.
Morten Gamst Pedersen
But footballers will continue to dive, however ridiculous the circumstance, until there is an adequate deterrent in place. And, at present, that deterrent is not in place. Even if a footballer is adjudged guilty of cheating and the referee deems the offence worthy of punishment, all that the cheat will suffer is a yellow card - which, unless it is his second of the game, is a trifle compared to the potential reward of winning a penalty. Pedersen's effort to deceive will earn him scorn and ridicule, and yet, as a professional footballer employed to serve the interests of a football club currently embroiled in a relegation fight worth upwards of £50m, his act of deception was entirely legitimate and logical.
His shame should pale alongside that of the game's rulemakers who, because of their failings, have tacitly allowed this ugly malpractice to flourish.
Gabriel Agbonlahor
The reaction of the Villa fans to his substitution was particularly harsh because
Agbonlahor's slump is a product of having to lead Villa's line in isolation throughout their winter of content.
Aston Villa
The wheels have come off and if they are to be reattached before Arsenal are out of sight then the repair job will have to be completed at Anfield and Old Trafford.
Villa were faltering before the late capitulation to Stoke but that setback has knocked the stuffing out of them and not even a trip to Dubai has provided the tonic to an under-strength and over-stretched squad. High amongst the reasons for their recent decline is a loss of luck and a shortage of players. Villa's squad is relatively small and the unavoidable conclusion from the past month is that it is too shallow to sustain a league push even when spared any other distractions. Quite how they'd manage with the additional task of playing Champions League football is a moot point but it's fair to assume that the extra workload would break their squad - unless additions are made - in a manner that would make requalification inconceivable. Whether they reach fourth place or not, Villa require a summer of arrivals.
David Bentley
Remember him? On a weekend when Aaron Lennon, Theo Walcott and Ashley Young all successfully enhanced their international credentials, Bentley was an unused substitute at Villa Park as his regression continued in haste. Since January, his first-team activities have been limited to 126 minutes of football - 90 of which were in the Ukraine as Spurs withdrew from the UEFA Cup - and a missed penalty in the Carling Cup shoot-out.
As with Robbie Keane at Liverpool, Bentley's transfer to Tottenham was self-celebrated because Spurs were the team he supported as a boy. Amateur psychologists may reflect that it is the additional pressure of self-expectation that such 'dream' transfers carry that often results in them becoming the stuff of nightmares.
Pete Gill
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