In the 12 months since his previous first-team appearance for Manchester United, Gary Neville has had little to smile about, but it is a safe bet that he enjoyed this match from his familiar perch on the back row of the Old Trafford directors’ box.

Any victory over Liverpool is treasured by the man who trades on his dislike of the Merseyside club, but this one, which brought United closer to their seventeenth league title and heaped such ignominy upon their bitterest rivals, could have felt sweeter only had he limped on to score the winning goal.

It was an afternoon when United strengthened their grip on the Barclays Premier League title, but the enduring memory will be of Javier Mascherano’s extraordinary behaviour after being sent off by Steve Bennett for a second bookable offence in first-half stoppage time. The Liverpool midfield player’s frustration was understandable, but his subsequent reaction, as he sought further confrontation rather than head for the dressing-room, was so inexcusable that he lost all sympathy. At a time when reestablishing respect for referees has become such a cause célèbre at the FA, it is safe to assume that he has not heard the last of the matter.

While that controversy will command headlines for the rest of the week, it should not obscure the extent of United’s superiority over a Liverpool team who had won their previous seven matches in all competitions.

Without reaching anything like their best form, Sir Alex Ferguson’s team were dominant and would have won by an even greater margin had Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney not each wasted two clear opportunities when sent through on José Manuel Reina. That profligacy could have cost United, with only a rare strike by Wes Brown separating the teams as the match entered its closing stages, but goals from Ronaldo and Nani, in the 79th and 81st minutes, changed the picture, so much so that the final whistle came as a relief to Liverpool’s chastened players and supporters.

Defeat at the hands of United has become a twice yearly event for Liverpool, who have lost all but one of their eight Premier League meetings since Rafael BenÍtez took charge in 2004. BenÍtez was adamant that this occasion would be different, that in Fernando Torres he had a match-winning talent to rival Ronaldo and Rooney, but from an early stage it appeared that his optimism had been misplaced, that again their limitations would be exposed by a United team who now lead them by 14 points. On yesterday’s evidence, it is an accurate reflection of where the teams stand.

Perhaps it would have been different had Mascherano not become involved in a running battle with Bennett, a contest that the referee was certain to win. From the ninth minute, when he was booked for a late challenge on Paul Scholes, the Argentinian was on the thinnest of ice, particularly as Bennett appeared to have taken a dislike to him. When Torres was booked for dissent a minute before half-time, Mascherano ran towards the referee to campaign on his teammate’s behalf.

Any other week, he might have got away with it, but in the light of last week’s controversy involving the actions of Ashley Cole, the Chelsea defender, he was asking for trouble. Bennett produced a second yellow card, followed by a red, and for a few seconds the Liverpool player seemed incredulous, almost to the point of laughter.

Then Mascherano’s mood changed. He began to remonstrate angrily with the referee and had to be dragged away by Xabi Alonso, Steven Gerrard and Alex Miller, one of Liverpool’s coaching staff. If the sending-off had seemed harsh at the time – at least in the sense that players can usually get away with dissent of a far more aggressive nature – the red card had been merited by the time he finally reached the dressing-room.

By that stage, Liverpool were trailing to Brown’s goal, only his third in 293 appearances for United. Their defending had been uncertain all afternoon, with Jamie Carragher struggling to assert anything like his normal authority, but most alarming of all was the performance of Reina. When a cross was floated into the six-yard box by Rooney in the 34th minute, the goalkeeper should have cut out the danger, but Brown got there first. It was not the prettiest of goals, the ball going in off his back, but it was priceless, perhaps not least in reminding the club of his value as an impasse continues over his contract negotiations.

BenÍtez suggested afterwards that the sending-off killed the game, but, after being let off the hook when Rooney and Ronaldo wasted one-on-one opportunities, Liverpool briefly threatened midway through the second half, with Torres’s control letting him down when a free kick by Gerrard reached him in a crowded penalty area.

Almost in spite of themselves, Liverpool were still in the game in the closing stages, but their hopes of an unlikely point were ended when Ronaldo headed home from Nani’s corner, Reina again being beaten to the ball, and their misery was completed two minutes later when Rooney set up Nani for a superbly taken third.

Ferguson’s glasses were knocked off during the euphoric celebrations on the United bench, but his vision of another title triumph is ever more clearly defined.

How they rated

Manchester United (4-3-2-1): E van der Sar 6 - W Brown 7 R Ferdinand Y 7 N Vidic 7 P Evra 7 - P Scholes 7 M Carrick 7 Anderson 7 - C Ronaldo 6 R Giggs 6 - W Rooney 7 Substitutes Nani (for Giggs, 73 min), C Tévez (for Anderson, 73). Not used: T Kuszczak, J O’Shea, O Hargreaves. Next: Aston Villa (h).

Liverpool (4-2-3-1): J M Reina 5 - Á Arbeloa Y 6 M Skrtel 5 J Carragher 5 F Aurélio 6 - J Mascherano Y R 4 X Alonso 5 - D Kuyt 5 S Gerrard 5 R Babel 5 - F Torres Y 5 Substitutes Y Benayoun 5 (for Babel, 66), J A Riise (for Torres, 83). Not used: C Itandje, S Hyypia, P Crouch. Next: Everton (h).