Liverpool have made a mockery of Manchester United

Bruno Fernandes and Alejandro Garnacho celebrated the announcement of nine minutes of added time more gleefully than Harry Maguire’s tap-in.

Manchester United had ticked off two of the three stages of the Old Trafford comeback: late equaliser and significant added time. The Fulham coach Marco Silva described Old Trafford as “on fire”.

The ball fell to Scott McTominay inside the area in Fergie Time. Some Fulham fans must have looked away. McTominay pulled the ball well wide. Yet there was still time for Victor Lindelof to waste a good headed chance and for Fernandes to test Bernd Leno twice.

“It’s coming,” my colleague promised. Rather than bury one’s head in a laptop, observing the spectacle took precedence. United fans did not agonise over the near-misses as there was still time on the clock. They felt it was coming. The fire was bellowing. Alex Iwobi doused it.

United’s football between Maguire’s equaliser and Iwobi’s winner was their best period all afternoon and there was next to no method in it. All hands to the pump. Play with abandon.

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It was so chaotic United pushed recklessly high without giving any consideration to the speed of Adama Traore, a winger who can go from 0-60 like a sports car. Maguire was pinned too tightly to Rodrigo Muniz and when Traore was briefly within reach, he daren’t touch him.

Ten minutes after full time, the stadium compere who revelled in announcing nine more minutes trudged up the empty gangway with a Stone Roses bucket hat on, resembling a deflated festival-goer.

Maguire was on a yellow card and he should have taken a second that