Wednesday’s game came as a surprise for Liverpool’s title charge as 15th placed Everton handed them a last minute draw at the Goodison Park.
The Merseyside derby promised fierceness from every aspect and that is exactly what we witnessed between the rivals.
Liverpool this season under Arne Slot have been monumental as they stand top in the Premier League and UEFA Champions League.
To put it into context this is Arne Slot’s first season in the Premier League and he has overtaken Jurgen Klopp who has a special place in every Liverpool’s fan’s heart but such has been his revelation that Scouserland hardly misses Klopp.
To everyone’s surprise, Slot did not make any summer signings of his own, but has gone on to revitalise many careers in the Liverpool squad such as Ryan Gravenberch who just couldn’t break into Klopp’s Liverpool but now is among the first names in the team sheet. His faith in Callum Jones, Cody Gakpo, Connor Bradley has reaped fruitful rewards as Liverpool has one of the strongest squads in world football at this point of time.
Everton, on the other hand, have been about to rebuild a good squad in the past month or two.
After Sean Dyche was sacked on 9th January, 2025, it was believed that Everton might go down as he was the man who would keep them just abreast outside the relegation battle but David Moyes home-coming after 11 years to Everton has been a merry occasion for the “toffees”.
Since his joining, Moyes has had 3 wins in 5 PL matches including wins from Brighton, Tottenham Hotspurs and Leicester City. His tactics have been more aggressive pressing, rejuvenated in intent and more xG produced at each half of the game. Under Dyche, it was all about old-school defending. However, Everton is now scoring goals to win games producing positive performances.
The Premier league match was postponed earlier from early December 2024 due to adverse weather conditions and was played on 12th February, 2025.
This match was filled with small battles at the different parts of the pitch as one would expect at the Merseyside derby.
The first goal came by Beto at the 11th minute when he slotted a cool finish past Allison from a “quickly taken” free kick by Jarrod Branthwaite. But the lead didn’t last long as Alexis Macallister guided a header past Pickford from a Mo Salah cross in the 16th minute.
In the second half, Everton was applying pressure but it was Salah who scored the goal in the 73rd minute for Liverpool from a Curtis Jones’ shot rebound. As Liverpool was seeing the match through at the end, Tarkowski arrived from nowhere in the penalty-area and planted a volley in the roof of the net to equalise at the very death.
The match turned ugly after the final whistle as Everton’s Abdoulaye Doucoure and Liverpool midfielder Curtis Jones were involved in a spat and both were awarded with a yellow card which meant an indirect red card as both had already been booked earlier during the course of the game. Slot and assistant coach Sipke Hulshoff were also red-carded for aggressive behavior towards the match officials.
Premier League table now.
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The match ended with frustration for the Reds as they only have a cushion of 7 points now with equal games remaining with that of Arsenal and would be thinking to at least maintain the gap if not improve it. Whereas, Mikel Arteta’s side would be looking at this as a perfect opportunity to close the gap between them so they can finally end the wait for a Premier League title after 21 years.
