After Sean Dyche’s debut delight defeating Premier League leaders Arsenal, with lamentable predictability Everton came crashing back down to earth across Stanley Park with what became a routine Merseyside derby win for Liverpool as the home fans taunted them with chants of 'this is your last trip to Anfield'.
Although the Blues were without injured striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who Dyche had admitted in his pre-match press conference was “touch and go at best” to feature here due to a hamstring problem, prompting the manager to hand Ellis Simms – recalled from a loan spell at Sunderland last month – with only his second ever Premier League start, there was little to choose between the sides in the opening exchanges.
Indeed, a mere 13 second before Liverpool took the lead, James Tarkowski had come agonisingly close to repeating his trick against the Gunners having rattled a header against the post from a corner kick. But the hosts countered in devastating fashion and with Everton’s defenders left chasing shadows, Jordan Pickford suffered another calamity in front of the Kop as he found himself hopelessly out of position to afford Mohamed Salah a tap-in into an empty net.
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It wasn’t in the same league as his nightmare moment against Divock Origi but he doesn’t seem to suffer such errors in many other fixtures.
The first goal was always going to be crucial in a tussle between two neighbours struggling for form of late but while the Blues were down but not out going into the second half, this fixture was all too quickly over as a contest as Jurgen Klopp’s side again turned defence into attack in the blink of an eye with a slick move that culminated with an all-too-simple tap-in at the back post for Cody Gakpo to open his account in English football. With their tails up, the Kop’s taunts got even cruder with cries of 'the s**** are going down'.
Dyche’s arrival has at least given Evertonians hope that they can survive and most of their loyal but long-suffering fans would have taken three points from his first two fixtures before they were played but having defeated Arsenal, there must be huge disappointment that they didn’t at least go down fighting here. There is never a free-hit in a Merseyside derby but the painful truth is that Leeds United on Saturday was probably always going to be the biggest fixture this week for the Blues, certainly in terms of shaping their top-flight destiny and whether or not they will be crossing the park again next season.
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