Two games banned for Vidic

....receiving his marching orders for the foul....

From bad to worse! Vidic nightmare not over as two-game ban rocks Manchester United's title hopes. Nemanja Vidic was yesterday banned for two games as the fallout from a humiliating defeat by Liverpool began to take its toll on Manchester United.

Sir Alex Ferguson’s rivals are waiting to see just how damaging Saturday’s setback will be to United’s hopes of a hat-trick of Barclays Premier League titles and their pursuit of a clean sweep of trophies.

Nightmare: Vidic blundered to let Fernando Torres in to score Liverpool's first......

Now the sending-off has ruled Vidic out of next weekend’s trip to Fulham and the following league game at home to Aston Villa.

...before flattening Steven Gerrard....

The FA confirmed that the straight red card shown to Vidic for hauling down Steven Gerrard at Old Trafford will mean a two-game suspension because it comes on the back of his dismissal for two bookings in the 2-1 defeat at Anfield last September.

At least Ferguson has an accomplished replacement in Jonny Evans to partner Rio Ferdinand at the heart of his defence and Ji-sung Park is confident Saturday’s defeat will not stop United retaining the title.

...and watching Fabio Aurelio curl home the resulting free-kick

Park said: ‘If we produce good performances, like we have been doing, for the rest of our league games this defeat will not be a big problem.’

Meanwhile, Liverpool have been told by UEFA president Michel Platini that the ruling body will try to avoid forcing the club to play the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final on April 15, the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster.