Everton 1-4 Liverpool – Premier League: Mohamed Salah nets brace in the Merseyside derby
The seventh best player in the world apparently, Mo Salah. So it wasn’t just Robert Lewandowski who got short-changed in Paris on Monday night.
Those other six must have rare talent indeed, to push Salah so far down the rankings. What he did here decided a Merseyside derby that was closer than it deserved to be, despite a scoreline that embarrassed Everton. Twice, he took advantage of errors by the home team to speed away and score, one on one, against Jordan Pickford. And that was pretty much the difference between the teams.
On the scoresheet, at least. In real terms there is a widening gulf as Liverpool hit a purple patch and Everton find a briar patch, and tumble into it head first. They haven’t won since mid-September and a mood of insurrection was in the air at the end here. Abuse was directed at sporting director Marcel Brands and former chairman Bill Kenwright, and the presence of Rafa Benitez in the dug-out was never going to help the ambiance unless results were good.
Liverpool players celebrate at Goodison Park during their 4-1 Premier League win over Everton in the 239th Merseyside derby
Diogo Jota completed the rout in the 79th minute after he rifled home high into the near post in a comfortable victory
Jota celebrates his strike as Liverpool dismantled the home side who rarely looked like troubling their local rivals
The honeymoon, such as it was, can be considered well and truly over now. There was a brief period when Demarai Gray pulled one back and raised the Goodison rafters but, by the end, there were swathes of vacated blue seats and those that remained were doing so only to voice their displeasure.
It did not help that the red corner of the ground was singing the Everton manager’s name with greater glee and gusto than the home crowd have ever managed. ‘Rafa’s at the wheel,’ they mocked. Then: ‘You’re going to boo in a minute.’ And they duly did.
So while there was a spell in the middle of this game in which Everton scrappily fought their way back into it, by the end the scoreline did not flatter Liverpool one bit. They were much the better team, even if derbies are always ferocious affairs and in Salah have a player who cut through the savagery of the occasion with coolness and class.
He rises above the sound and fury, is unaffected by the tension and drama. Once in either half he broke free on the counter-attack, scored both times, and decided the game. The first ushered in a two goal first-half gap that proved insurmountable, the second restored it just as Evertonians were living in hope of scoring another against the run of play.
Liverpool made a fast start to the game and deservedly opened the scoring in the ninth minute through Jordan Henderson
The Liverpool skipper celebrates his goal which came after a period of total dominance from the Reds in the derby
Mohamed Salah then doubled the advantage on the counter attack as he curls a finish beyond Everton’s Jordan Pickford
Salah celebrates his goal which helped put Liverpool into a 2-0 lead in fewer than 20 minutes played at Goodison Park
MATCH FACTS AND PREMIER LEAGUE STANDINGS
Everton (4-4-2): Pickford, Coleman, Godfrey, Keane, Digne, Townsend (Delph 73), Doucoure, Allan, Gray (Tosun 85), Richarlison, Rondon (Gordon 59).
Subs not used: Kenny, Begovic, Iwobi, Gbamin, Branthwaite, Dobbin.
Goal: Gray 38.
Booked: Townsend, Allan, Digne, Gray.
Liverpool (4-3-3): Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson, Henderson (Oxlade-Chamberlain 83), Fabinho, Thiago (Milner 75), Salah, Jota (Minamino 88), Mane.
Subs not used: Konate, Tsimikas, Origi, Kelleher, Williams, Morton.
Goals: Henderson 9, Salah 19, 64, Jota 79.
Booked: Thiago, Robertson, Van Dijk.
Referee: Paul Tierney (Lancashire).
Liverpool are the first team in history to score two goals or more in 18 consecutive games in all competitions and Salah has found the net in 12 of them, a total of 17 goals across that spell. It is not just those he converts, but those he makes, too.
Burnley are alone in the Premier League this season in stopping him from scoring, or assisting a goal. That is what Salah does. He decides games, and often the biggest ones. He’s not the seventh best anything. What matches are those Ballon D’Or judges watching?
Jurgen Klopp says he hates the intensity of the Merseyside derby and given the havoc this fixture wreaked on his season last year, it is not hard to see why. Yet, for the neutral, it must be admitted that the noise generated when Everton found an unlikely route back into this game was spine-tingling. Until that moment, it looked as if Liverpool would have it embarrassingly easy. Suddenly, there was a game on and a soundtrack to accompany it.
Some Everton fans had headed for the exits when Liverpool’s second went in after just 19 minutes. Others unfurled a banner critical of the board. Yet once Gray scored, the place erupted, grievances briefly forgotten. It helped that the locals had already taken against referee Paul Tierney for booking Andros Townsend for diving and Allan for a tackle that on close inspection looked harsh, but fair. They had a point. Yet minor injustices aside, at the moment when Gray offered hope, Everton were being overwhelmed.
Everton pulled a goal back shortly before half-time as Demarai Gray slotted home through the legs of keeper Alisson
Gray runs with the ball back to the centre-circle in an attempt to get the play started again as Everton built comeback hopes
But comeback hopes were extinguished in the second half when Salah scored his second goal after a Seamus Coleman error
Liverpool fans threw red flares on the pitch in celebration after seeing their side restore their two-goal advantage
Liverpool had set off like the clappers and only Jordan Pickford prevented them disappearing over the horizon. He made a string of acrobatic, athletic saves as Liverpool threatened to run up a score that would have left Benitez and his players with nowhere to hide.
The very first minute saw a hopeful ball upfield cause panic in the Everton ranks as Sadio Mane harried.
A panicked corner was conceded, taken by Trent Alexander-Arnold and headed just wide by Joel Matip. He should have done better.
Mane then turned provider, a low cross from the left struck first time on the turn by Salah and forcing the first big save of the night from Pickford, quickly down to tip round.
Yet Everton could not survive such a relentless onslaught and in the tenth minute, Liverpool found a way through.
Mane started it, on the left once more, finding Andrew Robertson who got in a great under-lapping position before taking the less obvious option and cutting the ball back to the edge of the D.
There was Jordan Henderson, Liverpool captain, and his finish was a delight. Not just a shot, but one that was steered with accuracy past Pickford from range.
Striker Salomon Rondon picked up a slight knock for Everton as he departed as a substitute in the second half
A frustrated Everton supporter confronts Anthony Gordon at the end of Everton’s worst home derby defeat in 39 years
Pressure has ramped up on Everton boss Rafa Benitez, with the Toffees having now lost six of their last seven games
Liverpool celebrated, not provocatively, in a corner populated by home fans, but that was still too much for Klopp. Ever mindful of trying to take the hostility out of the atmosphere, as much as the game, he screamed at them to get back onto their own half. This is never an occasion that slips under the radar, however. Alexander-Arnold forced another lovely save from Pickford with a shot from the edge of the area, and then Salah took the stage.
Everton lost possession during a rare forward foray and Liverpool’s counter-attacking wit made them pay. Alexander-Arnold mopped up, saw Salah in a foot race with Everton’s defence and immediately fancied his team-mate’s chances. He was right, too, Salah out-stripping several blue shirts before sticking the ball smartly past Pickford. It was the 500th goal of the Klopp era, and fittingly typical of what he has brought to this club.
So when Everton pulled one back it was thanks to a rare mistake in Liverpool’s back line. Matip and Virgil van Dijk left Gray far too much space meaning Richarlison could pick him out quite easily. Alisson saw the danger early and came rushing out to clear, but the former Leicester man finished sharply. Goodison came alive with more than grumbling dissent, at last.
Everton’s best spell followed, at the start of the second-half. It ended just after the hour when Seamus Coleman made a mistake and Salah removed all hope of an unlikely comeback. Coleman was trying to recycle the ball when he gifted it to Salah, a thoroughbred running against a field of dray horses. No-one could catch him, or get near him really, and his finish was exemplary leaving Pickford no chance: again.
By the end, Liverpool were in control, the fourth a humbling final flourish. It was set up by Robertson and finished by Diogo Jota, who’d had a quiet game after his fireworks against Southampton. None of Liverpool’s forwards stay silent for long, though. Not Jota, not Mane, and certainly not that one who isn’t quite as good as Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema or Jorginho. Apparently.
RE-LIVE ALL THE ACTION AS IT HAPPENED…
