The friendly rivalry between Liverpool and Manchester is one that has been going on since the industrial revolution, and it wasn’t long until it spilled over into the two football clubs – Liverpool and Manchester United.

There have been plenty of exciting matches over the years and both clubs have kept the scoresheet pretty balanced in these matches. However, United have had the better in recent years, particularly in the Premier League era where they have won the title on 13 occasions in the 25-year history whilst Liverpool haven’t won the English top flight since
1990.

Going into this weekend’s match, punters who have placed Betfair football bets on either side will be hoping that they’ve picked the winning team. The bookmakers are expecting a very tight match with both teams currently available at 2.82. This despite Liverpool suffering a big blow during the international break with Sadio Mane being sidelined for up to six weeks.

Manchester United have also started the season with six win from their opening seven Premier League matches and head into the weekend seven points ahead of their Merseyside rivals.

In previous encounters between these two, there have been plenty of standout moments where players have either made a horrendous mistake or had a moment of pure brilliance. In their very first game at Old Trafford, United managed to throw away a three-goal lead to lose 4-3 to Liverpool way back in 1910 (of course, after that they won the next seven homegames in a row).

Later, in 1985 in an FA cup semi-final, Bryan Robson and Mark Hughes managed to secure Manchester United’s place in the final and beat Liverpool in an absolutely enthralling encounter.

And how about 1992? With the Red Devils on the verge of their first title in a quarter century, Liverpool managed to beat them 2-0 thanks to Ian Rush and Mark Walters scoring brilliant goals.

Then in 1999, after not beating Liverpool in the FA Cup for 77 years, Sir Alex Ferguson’s side managed to snatch it, with 2 minutes left and 2 goals needed, they pulled off a 2-1 win with tremendous style. This of course being the season that they would go on to win the famous treble.

While these FA cup wins are all impressive, all helped out by the legendary players on both sides like Eric Cantona and Kevin Keegan, there’s an added element of pressure given they’re going to be playing in a derby match where fans are expecting you to perform and get the win.

It’s no surprise that one of the biggest derbies in England has also had some of the world’s best and most famous players play in the matches as well. Players such as Steven Gerrard and David Beckham have clashed on the pitch and proved their worth as the star players they were.

It’s not just the legends though, there are plenty of up-and- coming players we could see in this weekend’s match, such as Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial and Joe Gomez, who’ve also proved their worth on the pitch playing in derby games.

Some pre-match stats

Liverpool are on their second longest run of league games without a win against Manchester United- they’ve drawn two and lost four of the last six league meetings between the two sides.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has squared off against Jose Mourinho seven times in his career, and has ended on the losing side only once.

Jose Mourinho’s last league win against Liverpool came back in November 2014.