Report: Liverpool 0 United 1
Ferdinand or Vidic always equal to their efforts.
The hosts' need to bombard forward saw gaps begin to open up, and Rooney could easily have doubled the Reds' lead with 12 minutes remaining, but he could only divert the ball wide from Ronaldo's left-wing cross.
While he may well have done better, Rooney continued to give an outstanding display of hold-up play as United ran down the clock. The game's dying embers passed without major incident, allowing Sir Alex to savour a relatively comfortable victory in his 50th match against Liverpool.
Crucially too, in this season's title race, the result saw United move nine points clear of their hosts. From three games against their predicted titles rivals so far this season, only an injury time equaliser from Arsenal's William Gallas have prevented United taking nine points.
Liverpool: Reina; Arbeloa, Hyypia, Carragher, Riise (Aurelio, 80); Benayoun, Gerrard, Mascherano, Kewell (Babel, 66); Kuyt (Crouch, 73), Torres.
Subs not used: Itandje, Lucas.
Manchester United: Van der Sar; Brown, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra; Ronaldo, Hargreaves, Anderson (O'Shea, 90), Giggs; Rooney, Tevez (Carrick, 83).
Subs not used: Kuszczak, Fletcher, Saha.