Everton leave Liverpool’s title hopes in tatters with landmark derby win
Everton 2-0 Liverpool (Branthwaite 27′, Calvert-Lewin 58′)
GOODISON PARK — Mikel Arteta scored in Everton‘s last win over Liverpool at Goodison Park, just as Jurgen Klopp was making his name as a young upstart of a coach at Borussia Dortmund.
Fourteen years on and he will be punching the air with delight in front of a screen showing a jubilant Gwladys Street End once more, as his former club may have completely derailed Liverpool’s title charge.
Klopp’s farewell tour left its last spectacular in the capital on Sunday with a spring in their step, where Trent Alexander-Arnold’s return to full pelt transformed Liverpool in attack to jumpstart the German’s juggernaut into life, just at the right time.
The upbeat party rolled into Goodison ready to add another accolade to Klopp’s final procession, with victory set to make him the Liverpool manager with the best win ratio against Everton in the club’s history.
A freshly rested Mohamed Salah was reintroduced at Goodison, Alexander-Arnold on one flank, Andrew Robertson on the other – the good old, relentless gegenpressing days could ride again. The strongest XI Klopp could field would surely be too much for an Everton team humiliated by Premier League laughing stock Chelsea a matter of weeks ago.
Instead, as the euphoric Toffees put it upon the final whistle: “You (could have) lost the league, at Goodison Park.”
From the very first whistle, there was only one team really pressing high, first to every ball, roared on by a Stanley Park crowd fully behind their team. The boys in blue were a class above.
It was breathless stuff, from a team who looked down at out a matter of weeks ago on a club-record Premier League winless streak. Goodison can turn toxic very quickly when things go bad, but conversely, when things are going well, there are few stadiums in the country who create an atmosphere on par with anything a 1990s trip to Galatasaray could conjure.
Abdoulaye Doucoure could have scored inside three minutes, before five minutes later, Everton thought they had won a penalty, only for Dominic Calvert-Lewin to be judged offside as he was brought down by Alisson.
From every set piece, Liverpool defended crosses like Dracula. The team with the most goals this season from set pieces knew what to do every time they won the free-kick, and the visitors just wilted.
After already causing chaos with several long, lofted crosses to the back post, Everton made one count to instigate delirium on the blue half of Stanley Park. The defending was poor, as a startled Ibrahima Konate sliced his clearance straight to Jarrad Branthwaite, with the England defender squeezing the ball past Alisson to, remarkably, give Everton the lead in a Merseyside derby at Goodison for the first time in nearly 11 years.
Having taken the lead, Everton naturally retreated a little too far, inviting Liverpool pressure, with Darwin Nunez, the player now with the most shots in the Premier League this term, and Luis Diaz denied by identical Jordan Pickford saves before the break.
On the whole, however, Everton remained that one step ahead. A woeful Salah attempt ballooned over the bar and a Virgil van Dijk caution for wagging his finger in the referee’s direction summed up the Red’s woes in the first half.
Klopp needed a Churchillian speech during the interval to rouse his weary troops to keep his hopes of the ultimate victory this term alive, but there was no fighting on any beaches, only further surrender from Liverpool in the second half.
A second from Calvert-Lewin was not against the run of play. The marking, or lack thereof, was the only incongruous element to the game-clinching header.
Liverpool pressed, Diaz hit a post, but you never felt it was going to come to anything. Heads had dropped, in complete shock.
It is not over yet. Even Manchester City will likely drop some points. But enough to let Liverpool in at the very last? You wouldn’t bet your house on it. Not that this Liverpool team will win all their remaining games – this derby defeat, and the manner of it, will do irreparable damage.
