On another day, this could have been a defining performance for Anthony Gordon. There's little doubting he was Everton's main outlet at Anfield on Sunday afternoon, and there were a lot of moments in which Liverpool couldn't contain him.
He's certainly come a long way from struggling to regularly force his way into the Preston side at the back end of last season. he's spent months cultivating himself as one of the Blues' strongest performers, and he was right up for the occasion of this Merseyside derby.
Perhaps, in the end, he was a little *too* up for it at times. Although, he'll have felt very aggrieved with a number of decisions that went against him.
You don't want to make excuses after a defeat if you can help it, but Gordon will no doubt be very frustrated with how this one ended up. On another day he could have earned his side a few dangerous free kicks and perhaps even a penalty in the second half.
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Instead, he was booked for diving (a decision he couldn't necessarily argue with) and ended up on the losing side despite so often getting the better of the Liverpool defence. There were periods of this match in which Trent Alexander-Arnold felt the only way he could stop the winger was to foul him.
Sometimes the defender was pulled up on that, sometimes he wasn't. It's not the first time an Everton player has left Anfield feeling hard done by, and it probably won't be the last either.
But this is another display Gordon can take a lot of heart from. It's already been said many times this season, but he has become the option his team-mates look to for inspiration at the top end of the pitch.
And yes, this isn't to say he's the finished article. Far from it in fact, his final product does need some work - and he can perhaps do better in one-on-one dribbling situations against a backpedalling defender.
But some of his bursts down the flank on Sunday afternoon were full of the pace, drive and power that Everton have been missing for far too long. Some of them could, on another day, have potentially led to a penalty.
In the second half, the winger burst into the Liverpool box and looked to be pushed in the back as he got there. The referee gave nothing, perhaps swayed by an earlier decision to book the winger for diving inside the box in the second half.
That in itself came after a few occasions in which the home support were incensed by how easily Gordon was hitting the deck after being challenged. It certainly seemed to be a tactic from Everton in this game, the winger's influence just meant he was doing it more than others.
But, whether influenced by the crowd or not, Stuart Attwell chose that moment to pull Gordon up for the incident and book him. Perhaps, if the winger had not gone down in that scenario, he might have got a penalty in the second half.
You certainly feel like the latter incident is one that finds itself in the VAR limbo. If it's given, it doesn't get overturned - but if it's not awarded, you're not going to get it reviewed to the on-field official either.
That fact that this limbo exists is, of course, another discussion in itself - but we're talking about Gordon for now. Perhaps, that was just a little bit of inexperience in this pressure-cooker of an occasion.
But it's not his fault. He can hold his head high after another performance in which he gave absolutely everything, nearly created a number of opportunities, and proved himself to be every bit the senior Everton player.
He's come a long way since the beginning of the term. Don't let a Merseyside derby defeat make you forget that.
