Old foes Louis van Gaal and Ronald Koeman were at odds as to who was the better side after Manchester United sealed a hard-fought victory at Southampton.
The Red Devils came from behind to win 3-2 at St Mary’s and moved up to second place in the Barclays Premier League table – with new arrival Anthony Martial scoring twice for Van Gaal’s team.
Koeman saw his Southampton side start with a flourish and take a deserved lead through Graziano Pelle, with the Italy international thumping in a late header to leave United sweating on the three points.
Before then, Martial had levelled despite Juan Mata being offside in the build-up and the France international put United in front as he latched on to a weak backpass from Maya Yoshida to slot home.
Mata then finished off a 45-pass move before Pelle’s late consolation, leaving both managers with differing opinions on the outcome.
“I don’t talk about Man United, I talk about ourselves,” said a bullish Koeman. “We showed at different moments our strengths and maybe it is depending on the weaknesses of them but we showed our quality offensively.
“I’m disappointed because in my opinion we lost by ourselves. We did a lot of good things. There were several moments in the game where you put the pressure on them. We saw the weaknesses of Manchester United today, defensively.”
When Koeman’s opinion was put to Van Gaal, the Dutchman was dismissive of his compatriot's claims.
“Maybe you have twisted his words,” he said.
When it was clarified, Van Gaal continued: “He did say it? That is also remarkable. Maybe you have noticed we have also played in a Champions League match and we were behind in the score so we have done everything possible to win that game. So it is remarkable, because not many Champions League teams have won. So I am very happy.”
Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers , meanwhile, admits his side have to play with more bravery at home after another Anfield disappointment.
Despite Danny Ings’ first goal for the club after coming on at half-time the Reds could not hang on to their advantage with Russell Martin equalising after a mistake by goalkeeper Simon Mignolet, as the Norwich man made a mockery of spending the morning with his wife who gave birth to their third child.
“There was a feeling of anxiety when I came in,” said Rogers. “We made [Anfield] it a fortress. Now we are having to build it again.”
Norwich boss Alex Neil said: “We were brave. You need to ride your luck and rely on your goalkeeper, who made some great saves but we could have nicked it at the end when Matt Jarvis had his chance. I thought we deserved a draw.”
Tottenham, meanwhile, took all three points after their 1-0 win over Crystal Palace. Son Heung-min scored his third goal in two games to give Mauricio Pochettino’s side their first home league win of the season.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here