Sir Alex Ferguson’s infamous mission as Manchester United manager was “to knock Liverpool off their perch”.
So, it’s little surprise the legendary manager often took defeats against the Merseysiders worse than most other teams in the division.
But knock off their perch he did, as Ferguson went on to win 13 Premier League titles, 5 FA Cups, 4 League Cups, and two Champions League’s during a sensational 27 years at Old Trafford.
However, Liverpool ’s 3-1 home victory over the Red Devils in 2011 irked the Scotsman so badly, he bluntly refused to talk to any the media rights holders.
And it was a moment which became one of the highlights of Liverpool’s entire season.
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United had the opportunity to extend their lead at the top of the Premier League to a comfortable, but not unassailable, six points.
The Reds had already suffered a huge setback as they were defeated 2-1 by Carlo Ancelotti’s Chelsea side at Stamford Bridge.
Arsenal were creeping up on them but an Anfield victory would have restored United’s cushion at the top of the Premier League as well as their confidence.
At the time, Liverpool was trailing the top four places by an enormous six points, falling behind Tottenham and Chelsea in the race for the Champions League places.
However, the contest could not have gone better for Liverpool and it definitely could not have been worse for United.
Dirk Kuyt opened the scoring on the 34 th minute mark after some excellent work from Luis Suarez.
And while United and Ferguson were still processing the opening goal, Kuyt doubled the lead and his goal tally on the day five minutes later.
It was a fiery affair at Anfield which saw Nani stretchered off in the closing stages of half-time after a firm challenge from Lucas Leiva.
A highly probable Ferguson hairdryer treatment did nothing to rejuvenate United as Kuyt went on to seal his hat-trick and the third points in the 65 th minute.
Javier Hernandez stole a goal back in Fergie time, but it did nothing to quench the pain from a second consecutive defeat.
And Ferguson saw red at the final whistle as he refused to do any post-match media duties after the contest.
To provide further context, Ferguson had not carried out a single post-match interview with the BBC since 2004.
As a result of a BBC Three documentary with his football agent son Jason, Ferguson refused to offer his insights to any camera person or journalist for the BBC.
Instead Ferguson’s assistant Mike Phelan would carry out the obliged media duties with the BBC on behalf of the manager.
However, Phelan never turned up for his media duties either, and Ferguson snubbed all the other media rights holders he would normally speak to after every match.
He ignored Sky Sports News, TalkSPORT, and even the club’s official television channel MUTV.
Fortunately, Ferguson’s mood was restored by the end of the season, as United went on to win the title by a convincing nine point margin, while Liverpool finished in sixth position.
