For the past couple of years, this Man Utd-Liverpool derby has tended to revolve around a particular couple of players. Today proved no exception, though the headline-makers turned out to be different. In a match that saw no red card for Nemanja Vidic or goal for Fernando Torres, Dimitar Berbatov cemented his place firmly in the hearts of the home fans forever by bagging all three United goals to defeat a battling Liverpool side by the odd goal in five.

Despite the two-goal efforts of Steven Gerrard, it will be the Bulgarian whose name will adorn the back pages tomorrow, becoming the first United player for 64 years to put three past their bitter Merseyside rivals. After two years struggling to find his true form at Old Trafford, Berbatov, at last, now looks like the player Sir Alex Ferguson shelled out £30m for.

With both Wayne Rooney and Torres looking painfully off form, Berbatov took the chance to continue his hot streak of form and shone in one of the Premier League‘s showcase games, with his second goal, in particular, undoubtedly world-class.

United continued to show a worrying weakness at the back, and have now surrendered two goal leads in three of their five games to date. Both Jonny Evans and John O’Shea were particularly culpable, with the latter perhaps more than a little lucky to be on the pitch and able to supply the cross for United’s late winnner.

Roy Hodgson can take a crumb of comfort for the spirit his side showed in clawing back the two-goal deficit, but, five games into the new regime, Liverpool remain just a point above the drop zone. After the game Hodgson declared:

I thought our second half performance was really good and we deserved to get back into it. But we’ve conceded three goals from crosses and we’re disappointed with that. Maybe if we’d had some more composure at the end we’d have been able to see it out.

Sometimes, though, there’s little point in excuses when faced with a performance of true class. Today Dimitar Berbatov proved that.