Liverpool eventually won 2–0 to claim a long-awaited victory – the first in the league in 2023 – after four consecutive Premier League games without a full point.
In the last four years, Liverpool have won the league once and never finished worse than third. But this football season, not much has gone right, and after the turn of the year there have been losses against teams such as Wolverhampton, Brighton and Brentford. During the same period, Brighton also knocked Liverpool out of the FA Cup.
The pressure was therefore great on coach Jürgen Klopp ahead of Monday’s derby against Everton.
Swinging minute
The match’s 36th minute seemed to worsen the German’s headache even more. Instead, it became the pure lucky pill.
An Everton corner reached James Tarkowski at the far post and the 30-year-old looked to do just as he did against league leaders Arsenal just over a week ago, when he sealed a surprise 1-0 victory in just such a situation.
But this time the header hit the post and instead Liverpool launched a lightning-fast counterattack. Darwin Núñez passed to Mohamed Salah, who played it back to Núñez and the Uruguayan sped towards the Everton penalty area.
With a pass, he found Salah again and the Egyptian attacking star masterfully pushed in 1-0 to Liverpool.
Everton stuck at the bottom
Just after the break, Cody Gakpo made it 2-0. It was the 23-year-old Dutchman’s first goal for Liverpool.
Everton have scored just 16 goals in total this season – no team in the league has scored fewer – and never found a way back from two goals down.
For Liverpool, the victory means that they climb past Chelsea, to ninth place in the Premier League. However, it is a long way up to league leaders Arsenal: 19 points.
Everton remain in the relegation zone, one point behind Leeds who are currently on safe ground.