Gakpo off the mark as Liverpool beat Everton in Merseyside derby
OFF AND RUNNING: Liverpool's Dutch striker Cody Gakpo celebrates scoring the team's second goal during the English Premier League football match between Liverpool and Everton at Anfield in Liverpool. Pic: Paul Ellis/AFP via Getty Images
Normal service was resumed, thanks in large part to 15 sensational seconds in the first half, as Liverpool won yet another Mersey derby at Anfield Monday night and Sean Dyche’s honeymoon spell in charge of Everton ended with a resounding crash.
Goals from Mo Salah, his 18th of the season but first in 2023, and Cody Gakpo’s first for the club saw Jurgen Klopp’s team coast to a victory that was even easier than the scoreline suggested.
But Everton, who somehow inflicted defeat on leaders Arsenal in their new manager’s debut game last week, were instantly transported back into the depths of a complete crisis.
Not for 72 years has an Everton team been relegated from the top division of English football. The Toffees have been in the Premier League, or its predecessors, uninterrupted since 1954.
Now, Dyche must ready his shattered team to face Leeds, one place and one point above them just outside the relegation zone, on Saturday with the very real danger of those runs ending.
And, Monday night at least, all it took was 15 seconds for Everton’s derby night, and possibly their hopes of defeating relegation, to shift spectacularly.
One moment, Dyche’s team thought they had taken the lead, when defender James Tarkowski did well to meet Alex Iwobi’s corner with a header which thumped against the foot of the left-hand goalpost in the 36th minute.
And, 15 seconds later, they were a goal down, the feel good mood generated by last week’s spectacular win evaporating into the frigid Anfield night air.
Dwight McNeil drilled the rebound back towards goal, after Tarkowski struck the woodwork, but the ball broke to Darwin Nunez, just outside the Liverpool area who exchanged passes with Salah and led an extraordinary charge upfield.
Speeding down the left, away from Idrissa Gana Gueye, Nunez attracted Everton left-back Vitaliy Mykolenko over to his side of the field and left three unmarked Liverpool forwards in the middle.
To the collective list of Everton errors could be added Jordan Pickford’s decision to speed from his area, as he faced those three strikers, and Nunez squared the ball for the unmarked Salah to roll it into the goal, past the stranded keeper.
But, for Liverpool, it was a much-needed boost after a troubling run of one point from the last available 12, a four-game winless streak that featured three-goal defeats to Brentford, Brighton and, worst of all, Wolves.
“I’m desperate for that to happen,” said Klopp pre-kick-off when considering the potential morale boost that a derby victory would bring, particularly given the fact his side had lost just one of their last 22 Anfield fixtures against Everton.
The immediate signs of that outcome were not promising, with a slip by Joel Matip letting in young Everton striker Ellis Simms, starting a Premier League game for just the second time, for a shot which struck home defender Joe Gomez on the back.
But, with Dyche clearly adopting a cautious approach, Liverpool started to gain a foothold and turn up the intensity and pressure.
After nine minutes, a darting run across the face of the area by Nunez ended with a clumsy trip by Tarkowski and a Liverpool free-kick, 18 yards out, which Salah booted against a red shirt at the end of the Everton wall.
A few minutes later, impressive Liverpool teenager Stefan Bajcetic swung over a cross which Nunez turned into the area for Gakpo who headed a good half-chance disappointingly off target.
Just two games into his reign as Everton manager, this was a massive challenge for Dyche as he prepared for a team talk that could salvage the derby.
Instead, within three minutes of the restart, the game was over after Gakpo doubled their lead from another lightning Liverpool counter-attack, sparked by Andy Robertson sprinting from well inside his own half.
As Everton’s pedestrian defence furiously back-pedalled, a pass to Salah was followed by a ball out to the right wing from where Trent Alexander-Arnold delivered the perfect far-post cross for Gakpo to convert.
Yet, as had been the case with the first goal, there was also an horrific individual defensive error, this one from Conor Coady, who let the ball run on to the Dutch striker, for fear that he might have put it into his own goal.
Jordan Henderson, recalled to the midfield to combat Everton’s expected power in that department, flashed a shot just over soon after and Dyche’s men looked devoid of confidence and the up-and-at-‘em spirit they had displayed in their new manager’s first game in charge last week.
Substitute Tom Davies would miss a late chance for the visitors, but, on at least two occasions each, Nunez and Salah were played in on goal and might have extended the lead further.
There was a late flurry of aggression from Everton, as Pickford and Coady reacted angrily to a late Robertson challenge, sparking a minor melee, but that was a rare example of fighting spirit shown by Dyche’s men all night.
Alisson 6; Alexander-Arnold 7, Matip 5, Gomez 6, Robertson 7; Henderson 7 (Milner 79, 5), Fabinho 6, Bajcetic 7 (Keita 89); Salah 8 (Elliott 89), Nunez 7 (Jota 69, 6), Gakpo 7 (Firmino 79, 5).
van Dijk, Tsimikas, Phillips, Kelleher.
Pickford 5; Coleman 5, Coady 5, Tarkowski 5, Mykolenko 5; McNeil 6 (Maupay 77, 5), Doucoure 4, Gueye 5, Onana 5 (Davies 77, 5), Iwobi 5; Simms 4 (Gray 61, 5).
Holgate, Keane, Mina, Begovic, Godfrey, Vinagre.
S Hooper 7.
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