Same old same old, they were the better side, only taking a step back once they were in front. Too many players failed to produce enough skill and endeavour to compete against them all over the park and they did win all the battles.
One goal was always going to be enough and therefore a mistake could not be afforded, and more inspiration/ruthlessness shown up front. They made 2 mistakes and we failed to punish them, we made one and were punished. That is the difference between winning and losing at this level, and why they challenge for the title and we won't.
We did alright defensively, but with the ball we lacked composure, ideas and inspiration. We had enough possession in their half to build up a head of steam, but not the players. Gerrard and Mascherano tried hard, but created little, benayoun and kewell were poor and bossed by their full back (with Evra, that is almost acceptable, but wes brown?!?), Kuyt worked hard but with little effect or penetration and Torres did not get the service or support to really stretch ferdinand and vidic.
This match shows how much further we have to go to challenge effectively. We may pick up more points throughout the season, but we still have to beat (score even) against the mancs to really progress. The benchmark is still the mancs and chelsea, and we have yet to reach that benchmark, or even come close.
Positive notes - riise played well, keeping ronaldo very quiet (with help from mascherano) and was a good outlet (cue "but his distribution was shite, he just wellied it like he always does"; no he didn't he mainly kept it simple, and moved the ball into the opposition half swiftly by carrying it or getting into space, and provided good support for kewell), babel looked better again when he came on, which bodes well for the future (this season included), taking people on and running at defenders at a fairly frightening pace. And we did defend well against a pretty good attacking side, save for one error at a set piece and a couple of breaks when we were caught short.
Biggest negative is that we still failed to trouble the mancs defence - which is the best in the league and is therefore no disgrace but is not good enough if you want to challenge for the title. It just exposes the fact that we still have a way to go to really challenge.