Despite neither side challenging for the Premier League title in recent years, Manchester United vs Liverpool is still the biggest match in England’s top-flight - and possibly world football.

And with just two points separating them in the league table as they fight for a second-place finish, the clash at Old Trafford on Saturday lunchtime is set to extremely intense.

While they might not be going head-to-head for the Premier League crown this season, they did battle it out during the 2008/09 campaign.

The Red Devils appeared to be cruising to a comfortable league title until Liverpool travelled to the Theatre of Dreams in March and spanked them 4-1.

It brought them within touching distance of Sir Alex Ferguson’s side - although United did eventually go on to claim the crown.

But that afternoon was tough to take for everyone associated with Man Utd. And it was certainly tough for Nemanja Vidic.

The Serbian defender made a bad mistake to allow Fernando Torres to equalise before he was shown a straight red card for hauling down Steven Gerrard in the second-half - a free-kick which resulted in Fabio Aurelio putting Liverpool 3-1 ahead.

But how did Ferguson react to such a damaging defeat that allowed Liverpool to draw within four points of them in the title race?

HOW FERGUSON REACTED TO LOSING 4-1 TO LIVERPOOL

Well, by joking around, of course.

“Sometimes you see a player and he knows he has made a  mistake so what can you say?” Vidic said of his nightmare that day.

“Everybody knows he has made a mistake and the papers the next day are going to say he let the team down. What  is the manager going to add?

“After that 4-1 game Sir Alex was red when he came in the next day. But because he saw around the ground that everybody was sad, he started making jokes and building us up again. He knew there was a big game coming. He knew we were very sad we had lost but if we did not win the next game, we were going to lose the title and Champions League.

“But he was only able to do it for four or five minutes before he had to go out. Four or five minutes was as much as he could manage!”

FERGUSON - THE GREATEST?

So, Ferguson was well aware that his players didn’t need a telling off after such a damaging defeat and decided he would attempt to rally his players by building up their confidence straight away.

It certainly worked as his side manage to pick themselves up and won the title by four points.

It’s just yet another reason why Ferguson was the greatest manager in football history. He knew his players so well and knew exactly what they needed and when.

He may have been famous for giving out hairdryer treatments but there was a time and a place.