Liverpool made the sort of statement of intent that Rafa Benitez had been praying for on Saturday - but he insists his team can still improve.
Five successive defeats by Manchester United in the league and a succession of hard-luck stories against the Old Trafford men had meant that Benitez has never experienced league victory over Sir Alex Ferguson.
That all changed thanks to a vibrant comeback at a raucous Anfield which saw Liverpool over-power the best team in the country.
Behind early on through a Carlos Tevez strike, Liverpool struggled to initially contain Manchester United's pace and movement.
But when the outstanding Javier Mascherano and Xabi Alonso got a grip in midfield, Liverpool were on the way to a significant victory in the early weeks of the Barclays Premier League title chase.
An own goal from Wes Brown gave Liverpool their lifeline back into the match, and the longer the second period went on, there seemed only one winner.
The deciding goal came from substitute Ryan Babel with 13 minutes left, and there was time for Nemanja Vidic to be sent off for a second yellow card - he could easily have had a straight red - for a forearm crunch into Alonso's head in an aerial challenge.
Benitez experienced his first league win over United in nine attempts, and said: "This was my first win against Manchester United in the league, and that was important for the team and for the fans in terms of belief and confidence for the future.
"And we also showed character after conceding an early goal. It was really important to score the goals we did, and to improve so much in the second half.
"I do not want to talk about just one player, the team was very good, lots of players working very hard. Especially Robbie Keane and Dirk Kuyt, the strikers, who put in amazing work rate and performances.
"We are in a good position in terms of confidence rather than results, because it is too early to start talking about titles.
"What we have done is put ourselves in a good position in terms of confidence and where we are in the table.
"But if we want to stay where we are, we must continue to improve. We needed to improve our form, we had been winning but not playing too well, so we needed to play better for the future."
He added: "We have also shown improvement against one of the top sides. That has been our problem against other teams in the top four.
"But we have beaten the champions of England, and Europe, and that has given us already improvement on last season.
"We were losing against a good team, but we showed character and there were lots of positives."
Ferguson, who handed a debut to new signing Dimitar Berbatov, made no excuses for the defeat against arguably United's fiercest rivals.
He said: "Our defending was poor, we had a bad day. Overall they were far the better team.
"We started well, we scored a wonderful goal and Berbatov could have had one even earlier.
"But that is the time when you should establish yourself. But Liverpool made us make mistakes with their effort and tackling, and we did not cope with that at all well.
"It's hard to say why we were not able to respond to that, but we certainly could not cope with their strong tackling.
"They harassed us into mistakes, and they must take credit for how hard they pressed us when we had possession.
"We should be able to handle that better. There was nothing to take out of that performance in any way."
But Benitez ended the day knowing that Liverpool had proved a point at last.
Performances against the rest of the top four have been poor in his time at Anfield, but a win against the European champions has put that set of embarrassing statistics right at a stroke.
And they did it without Fernando Torres, and with Steven Gerrard only on as substitute for 22 minutes.
Benitez said: "We did not have key players, Gerrard for most of the game, and Torres. But we showed we had a good squad and players who could come in and show real quality.
"We will have to use all our players throughout this season, and we showed that there are people who can come in and produce performances like that.
"I was disappointed with the early goal we conceded, you do not want to give a team like United possession and control of the game.
"We had to change many things, but we were much better in the second half and we deserved to win. We were not more aggressive than them, but we played better in the second half."
Five successive defeats by Manchester United in the league and a succession of hard-luck stories against the Old Trafford men had meant that Benitez has never experienced league victory over Sir Alex Ferguson.
That all changed thanks to a vibrant comeback at a raucous Anfield which saw Liverpool over-power the best team in the country.
Behind early on through a Carlos Tevez strike, Liverpool struggled to initially contain Manchester United's pace and movement.
But when the outstanding Javier Mascherano and Xabi Alonso got a grip in midfield, Liverpool were on the way to a significant victory in the early weeks of the Barclays Premier League title chase.
An own goal from Wes Brown gave Liverpool their lifeline back into the match, and the longer the second period went on, there seemed only one winner.
The deciding goal came from substitute Ryan Babel with 13 minutes left, and there was time for Nemanja Vidic to be sent off for a second yellow card - he could easily have had a straight red - for a forearm crunch into Alonso's head in an aerial challenge.
Benitez experienced his first league win over United in nine attempts, and said: "This was my first win against Manchester United in the league, and that was important for the team and for the fans in terms of belief and confidence for the future.
"And we also showed character after conceding an early goal. It was really important to score the goals we did, and to improve so much in the second half.
"I do not want to talk about just one player, the team was very good, lots of players working very hard. Especially Robbie Keane and Dirk Kuyt, the strikers, who put in amazing work rate and performances.
"We are in a good position in terms of confidence rather than results, because it is too early to start talking about titles.
"What we have done is put ourselves in a good position in terms of confidence and where we are in the table.
"But if we want to stay where we are, we must continue to improve. We needed to improve our form, we had been winning but not playing too well, so we needed to play better for the future."
He added: "We have also shown improvement against one of the top sides. That has been our problem against other teams in the top four.
"But we have beaten the champions of England, and Europe, and that has given us already improvement on last season.
"We were losing against a good team, but we showed character and there were lots of positives."
Ferguson, who handed a debut to new signing Dimitar Berbatov, made no excuses for the defeat against arguably United's fiercest rivals.
He said: "Our defending was poor, we had a bad day. Overall they were far the better team.
"We started well, we scored a wonderful goal and Berbatov could have had one even earlier.
"But that is the time when you should establish yourself. But Liverpool made us make mistakes with their effort and tackling, and we did not cope with that at all well.
"It's hard to say why we were not able to respond to that, but we certainly could not cope with their strong tackling.
"They harassed us into mistakes, and they must take credit for how hard they pressed us when we had possession.
"We should be able to handle that better. There was nothing to take out of that performance in any way."
But Benitez ended the day knowing that Liverpool had proved a point at last.
Performances against the rest of the top four have been poor in his time at Anfield, but a win against the European champions has put that set of embarrassing statistics right at a stroke.
And they did it without Fernando Torres, and with Steven Gerrard only on as substitute for 22 minutes.
Benitez said: "We did not have key players, Gerrard for most of the game, and Torres. But we showed we had a good squad and players who could come in and show real quality.
"We will have to use all our players throughout this season, and we showed that there are people who can come in and produce performances like that.
"I was disappointed with the early goal we conceded, you do not want to give a team like United possession and control of the game.
"We had to change many things, but we were much better in the second half and we deserved to win. We were not more aggressive than them, but we played better in the second half."
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