Manchester United's meetings with Liverpool are hardly ever friendly, but the animosity in the air at Old Trafford on February 11, 2012 was arguably unparalleled.
The clash marked the first time the two sides had faced off since Liverpool's Luis Suarez had been found guilty by the FA of racially abusing United defender Patrice Evra at the corresponding fixture at Anfield earlier on that season.
It was an incident that left Evra deeply shaken, with the Frenchman revealing he had received death threats while the FA conducted their investigation into Suarez's remarks.
"They were opened by Barry Moorhouse, then the player liaison officer and long-time United servant. 'Pat, this is a really serious case,' Evra told Sportsmail.
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"One was from a man in prison who said that the first thing he was going to do when he got out was kill me.
"The police came and told me they had to take it seriously. For two months, I had 24-hour security in front of my house."
Eventually, the FA concluded their investigation and the Uruguayan forward was banned for eight-games.
It just so happened his first fixture back after serving the suspension came in the form of another meeting with Evra and United - four months on from the clash at Anfield.
In between that time, Liverpool had already sparked backlash after warming up in their infamous t-shirts issuing support with Suarez despite his comments.
Tensions were high as both sides lined up inside the Old Trafford tunnel, Suarez and Evra just metres apart from each other ready to do battle.
As is customary before every Premier League fixture, players from the home side will stand in a line while their visitors make their way down the team shaking hands with each of their opponents.
Every pair of eyes inside Old Trafford were fixated on Suarez, lingering at the back of the line seemingly dreading the inevitable face off with Evra.
What followed tarnished the game and raised the stakes before a ball had even been kicked.
Evra - the victim, reached out to shake the hand of Suarez, the guilty party and yet it was the Liverpool striker who snubbed the defender's olive branch.
The former France international clenched the wrist of Suarez while the current Atletico Madrid forward kept his head down and shrugged Evra off.
United's left-back had very little time to show his frustration before he was pushed back into line for Reds shot-stopper Pepe Reina who had taken it upon himself to double up as one of Suarez's henchmen.
Rio Ferdinand showed solidarity with his United teammate by snubbing Suarez as tempers flared before the first whistle.
The central defender would go on to tell MUTV: "After seeing what happened, I decided not to shake his hand. I lost all respect for the guy.
"He has not got the respect that he needs to acknowledge he's made a mistake and say sorry and move on from that.
"It could have been resolved between the two players today. After this, it's not great."
The players eventually dispersed and took up their respective positions, but United now had added motivation to topple a long-time rival.
The first 45 minutes passed by with little to note outside of a few crunching tackles, but Suarez was at the centre of more aggravation as the players made their way off the turf for their half-time team talk.
Liverpool's forward had opted to leather the ball into the home crowd after Phil Dowd had called time on the first period.
It clearly sparked the hosts into life, who bagged two inside the opening four minutes of the second-half thanks to a Wayne Rooney brace.
The visitors consolation goal in a 2-1 defeat of course came from none other than Suarez himself after he prodded beyond David de Gea from close range.
Any chance of the post-match discourse being about the football quickly disappeared after Evra's over-zealous celebrations nearly sparked yet another fracas.
The defender made a beeline for Suarez, who was walking off the pitch in dejected fashion after the defeat.
Swinging his arms and skipping gleefully, Evra undoubtedly tried to make sure Suarez felt as small as possible and some may argue he was within his rights to do so.
Dowd did his best to get Evra away from Suarez, but not before a number of other Liverpool stars made their fury clear to an Evra who seemingly couldn't care less.
After the game, Sir Alex Ferguson was scathing in his assessment of Suarez's conduct.
"He's a disgrace to Liverpool Football Club, that type of player should not be allowed to play for Liverpool again," fumed Ferguson.
"The history that club has got and he goes and does that in a situation like today - he could have caused a riot.
"I was really disappointed, that was terrible what he did."
As expected, Reds manager Kenny Dalglish didn't see it exactly the same way.
The Scot took aim at Sky Sports interviewer Geoff Shreeves for suggesting Suarez was even partly responsible for the ill-feeling the game was marred by.
"I think you are very severe and I think you are bang out of order to blame Luis Suarez for anything that happened here today," Dalglish claimed.
"Both sets of fans behaved well, they had a bit of banter between each other - no bother."
The victory placed United at the summit of the Premier League table, but the general mood was one of anger and frustration from both sides in the immediate aftermath.
The whole sorry saga was perhaps best summed up by former Liverpool midfielder Jamie Redknapp, who was part of Sky's coverage for the contest.
"I think the whole thing has been... it's not helped anybody in football at all, it's looked bad from top to bottom."
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