THE faces may change but the story remains depressingly the same for Rafael Benitez against Manchester United.

A latest chance for his Liverpool team to end a dismal record against their bitter north west enemies ended in the familiar tale of under-whelming and uninspired defeat.

As a spectacle, it will not linger long in the memory. But while United manager Sir Alex Ferguson celebrates victory in his 50th involvement in English football’s most significant fixture, the resonance of the outcome will be felt greater at Anfield.

Benitez always insisted yesterday’s game would not have any great impact on his subsequent meeting with George Gillett and Tom Hicks later in the evening.

Yet, under the watchful gaze of the club’s American owners, Liverpool showed how they frustratingly remain unable to make that final step up from possibles to probables in the championship stakes.

Since Benitez assumed charge at Anfield in the summer of 2004, his team have taken just one point from seven games against United.

No Liverpool player has even scored during that period, and Benitez’s men never convinced they were going to alter that statistic yesterday once Carlos Tevez diverted Wayne Rooney’s mis-hit shot high into the Kop net with two minutes remaining of the first half.

That strike consigned Liverpool to a second successive league defeat and means they stand nine points behind United and a further point adrift of leaders Arsenal, having slipped outside the top four and with the added ignominy of seeing their in-form neighbours sidle up alongside them in the table.

Certainly, the Anfield outfit can wave goodbye to any hopes of any significant say during the championship run-in until they address their Achilles heel of a pitiful record against their three other main title rivals.

Yes, Benitez could rightly argue his team’s performances deserved greater reward than just two points from their home fixtures against Chelsea, Arsenal and United this season.

But that meagre haul has made positive results at Stamford Bridge, Highbury and Old Trafford – venues where Benitez has never won a league game as Liverpool manager – an imperative.

United’s stranglehold over Liverpool in recent times – even allowing for a brief flurry of triumphs under Gerard Houllier – gives the Old Trafford side an edge even before a ball has been kicked, a self-belief among the players and the supporters that victory is to be expected.

By contrast, Liverpool and the Kop lack such confidence. From the moment United went ahead yesterday, an air of inevitably descended upon the home stands.

That said, United seemingly have to do less and less to earn their victories against Liverpool these days. Indeed, one of only two shots on target was sufficient for the champions to extend their unbeaten league run at Anfield to six games..

Ferguson later claimed the better team had won but in truth, such was the paucity of entertainment and goalmouth action on offer, neither side deserved the three points.

Benitez kept faith in the men that massacred Marseille in midweek, naming an unchanged line-up for only the second time this season. United, though, are a substantially tougher proposition and Liverpool failed to come close to replicating the flowing football that saw them qualify for the Champions League knockout stages.

Harry Kewell and Yossi Benayoun, who both shone in southern France, were subdued, Javier Mascherano was wasteful in possession while precious little went right for Dirk Kuyt.

Even strike partner Fernando Torres, the new Anfield hope with 12 goals in 19 games, struggled to impose himself on a United defence for whom Rio Ferdinand and Patrice Evra in particular were resolute.