Liverpool’s big break! Merseyside derby for “The Reds”

Although Everton are still in the Premier League’s relegation zone, the Toffees approached Monday’s derby at Anfield Road in better spirits. All because in the last round, in the debut of new manager Sean Dyche, Everton managed to beat Premier League leaders Arsenal 1-0.

Liverpool, on the other hand, were moving farther and farther away from the European cups with each round. No wonder – Juergen Klopp’s team in 2023 in the Premier League has not yet won and with just one point scored was the worst in the whole league, and in the meantime also dropped out of the FA Cup. Klopp himself on Monday decided to shake things up a bit by leaving Virgil van Dijk on the bench.

Liverpool’s big break! Merseyside derby for “The Reds”

Liverpool came into Monday’s derby better, but in fact both teams played quite chaotic and had a lot of problems with creating chances for themselves. For the first half hour, only Cody Gakpo’s missed header deserved attention.

The game was decisive in the 36th minute when Everton had a corner kick. After that, James Tarkowski headered very dangerously, but only hit the post.

What’s more, all this resulted in a deadly Liverpool counter – after a dozen or so seconds the ball was already in the defensive zone of the guests, Darwin Nunez crossed it in full run for 16 meters, where Mohamed Salah took advantage of Jordan Pickford’s fatal goal. Anticipating the Englishman, the Egyptian steered the ball easily into an empty local rival’s goal and opened the scoring.

The second half of the game started with another goal for “The Reds”, again after a quick attack. This time, in the 49th minute, Trent Alexander-Arnold played a great flat cross from the right side of the pitch, and Cody Gakpo closed the action on the far post, scoring his first goal in the Premier League from close range.

The next few minutes saw great but missed chances from Darwin Nunez, who was unable to add a goal to a first-half assist. In the 70th minute, Diogo Jota came on for the Uruguayan, returning from injury, for whom it was his first Premier League appearance since October 16.

Both sides could have turned the game around late in the day but Tom Davies (Everton) and Mohamed Salah were ineffective as Liverpool won 2-0 in Monday’s Merseyside derby. With their first league win of 2023, Liverpool moved ahead of Chelsea on 32 points to ninth in the Premier League table. Everton have 18 points and remain in the relegation zone in eighteenth place.