WHATEVER Chelsea may yet feel they can do about it, there is an ominous pattern developing at the top of the Premiership. For the second successive Saturday, Alex Ferguson danced a grandfather's jig of delight and relief as his boys snatched an undeserved winning goal with just a couple of minutes to play;

once again the central figure was Cristiano Ronaldo, the late scorer at Fulham last week, who set up John O'Shea. After the game the Waterfordman described his winner as "the most important goal of my career." His strike ended all sorts of Liverpool records and leaves the locals looking to Barcelona in the Champions' League this week for consolation.

There was a price to pay, Wayne Rooney suffering a knee injury and Paul Scholes' red card costing him a place in two Premiership games and Saturday's FA Cup tie at Middlesbrough. But three more points are securely in the bag and Manchester United must now believe the force is with them.

Stuttering every bit as much as in the considerably less hostile confines of Craven Cottage, they failed to force a save from Jose Reina for fully 80 minutes, then caught him by surprise with added time about to be be signalled.

Ryan Giggs drew a foul out on the left, Ronaldo whipped in one of his tantalising low free-kicks that the goalkeeper could not hold and John O'Shea, who had replaced the injured Rooney a quarter of an hour earlier, swept the ball into the roof of the net to prompt delirious celebrations. It was the first time Liverpool had conceded at home in the Premiership for 931 minutes, stretching back to October, and only the fourth all season - an extraordinary statistic considering that Arsenal put nine Cup goals past them in four days last month.

Their limitations are at the other end of the pitch, as was illustrated again in a game of few chances and disappointing quality. With both defences pushing up and Steven Gerrard reluctant to stay very wide for very long, the midfield area would have benefited from congestion charging. Nobody on either side seemed able to keep the ball for long - it was not a day for Ronaldo's theatricals - and although Craig Bellamy gave Nemanja Vidic a difficult afternoon, most of the better performers, like Jamie Carragher and Rio Ferdinand, were defenders. Edwin van der Sar deserved a place on that list as well, if only for the one-handed save that denied another substitute, Peter Crouch, who must have thought he had reprised last season's winning goal in the FA Cup.

"Liverpool's pressing upset our rhythm and they were very unlucky, " Ferguson said, offering a hint about how best to combat his team. "You need that bit of luck to win a championship and I think we've had that. It's a massive result."

Rafa Benitez, asked to explain how Liverpool could have lost, said glumly, "In Spanish it would be difficult, in English more so."

Even with Champions' League assignments this week, both managers did at least send out full-strength sides. Unfortunately, almost every time the game began warming up, it went off the boil again.

In Liverpool's bright start to the second half, Bellamy was narrowly offside as he turned the ball in, yet that would be his side's last significant threat for half-anhour. Both managers showed their dissatisfaction by making the maximum number of substitutions, which enlivened proceedings. One newcomer, Louis Saha, was tripped by Daniel Agger without being awarded a penalty;

another one, Crouch, forced a superb save from Van der Sar; but it was a third, O'Shea, who had the decisive word.

In between times, Scholes, being held back by Xabi Alonso, was sent off for swinging a punch; even though, like so much that had gone before, it missed.