Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed that he was pleased with the way that his Manchester United side played against rivals Liverpool this afternoon.

Goals from Robin van Persie and Nemanja Vidic put the league leaders in command and despite Daniel Sturridge coming off the bench to halve the deficit, United held out to claim maximum points.

"It obviously doesn't matter when you play Liverpool, it is a big game and I hope it's an important result. We were fantastic until their goal, which inspired them," he told BBC Sport. "They made a fist of it in last half hour and it made it an engrossing game.

"We played well. It was as good a performance as we've produced for a while. When you play Liverpool you have to be at your best form to win and we were."

United will remain 10 points clear at the top of the Premier League table if Manchester City lose at Arsenal later today.

You can follow Sports Mole's live commentary of that match here.