Everton 2 Liverpool 0: Klopp’s side suffer huge blow in Premier League title race to leave Arsenal and Man City smiling

UNLIKE Sir Alex Ferguson, Jurgen Klopp never suffered from the curse of noisy neighbours – until now.

Klopp had never lost at Goodison Park and never lost a Merseyside derby in front of a crowd during his eight-and-a-half year reign.

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Liverpool’s title challenge hit a road block at Goodison Park[/caption]

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Everton punished their bitter rivals in a 2-0 win[/caption]

But on his final foray into this fixture – as Goodison rattled and hummed and Sean Dyche’s team subjected Liverpool to a ferocious aerial bombardment – Klopp was finally humbled.

What had threatened to be a farewell quadruple for the German, now looks certain to be limited to the mere bauble of the Carabao Cup.

Liverpool surely cannot win the title now, with Arsenal three points ahead and Manchester City just a point behind with two games in hand.

Former Evertonian Mikel Arteta will have loved it. Pep Guardiola, too.

This was a fourth defeat in a nine-match run which has seen Liverpool blow three trophies in an epic capitulation.

There were no excuses. Liverpool were at full strength but they couldn’t handle Everton’s direct approach, with Dominic Calvert-Lewin a raging bully up top.

The Everton centre-forward only just stopped short of flushing Ibrahima Konate’s head down the toilet and stealing Virgi Van Dijk’s pocket money.

Calvert-Lewin netted a sky-scraping header for the second goal, having been denied an early penalty before Jarrad Branthwaite’s first-half opener.

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Jarrad Branthwaite opened the scoring for Everton[/caption]

Everton are surely safe now, despite their points deductions. This was a third straight home for Dyche and it was richly deserved.

Liverpool missed a shedload of chances, which has been the story of their season.

And particularly since Klopp announced his intention to leave, back in January.

The Reds were virtually invincible until that moment but have been beaten five times since.

Remarkably, they were a more effective side when they were injury-ravaged and stuffed full with kids.

Klopp’s only previous derby defeat had come at an empty Anfield during the pandemic season of 2020-21.

Dyche is the eighth Everton boss Klopp has faced in this fixture and only the second to have beaten the German, after Carlo Ancelotti.

And how the blue half of Scouseville loved it. They have been heartily sick of all the cloying ‘This Means More’ sentimentality around Klopp’s impending departure.

Klopp has won fewer English titles than either Howard Kendall or Harry Catterick, as Evertonians have kept reminding their rivals, and that is surely how it is going to remain.

The Anfield chief made five changes after a mix-and-match team had kept them in the title hunt with an impressive win at Fulham on Sunday.

But there were two serious scares for Liverpool inside the opening six minutes.

First, Abdoulaye Doucoure stabbed horribly wide after a flowing Everton move, then after all the shenanigans of Sunday’s win over Nottingham Forest, came another penalty that never was.

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Dominic Calvert-Lewin rose up to nod home the second[/caption]

James Tarkowski won a crunching tackle on the halfway line, Jack Harrison played a gorgeous outside-of-the-boot pass to release Calvert-Lewin, who was brought down by Alisson.

Ref Andy Madley pointed to the spot but VAR spotted Calvert-Lewin was offside

A Salah ball across goal was brilliantly cleared by Ben Godfrey.

But Dyche’s side were bossing it – going long, pressing high, in full dogs-of-war mode.

Godfrey sent a free header wide from a Dwight McNeil free-kick and then Calvert-Lewin had another headed effort pushed out by Alisson at point-blank range.

After 27 minutes, Everton took a lead which was thoroughly deserved.

Dyche’s boys won a succession of headers in a goalmouth scramble and Alexis Mac Allister miscued an attempted clearance, allowing Branthwaite to poke his shot under Alisson, off the post and inches over the line.

There was a lengthy VAR delay, of course. But even Nottingham Forest would agree that Notts County fan David Coote had no reason to rule it out from Stockley Park.

It was the 16th time Liverpool had conceded first in the Premier League this season, yet more often than not, they’d come back to win.

Mac Allister soon opened up Everton with a cunning pass, Salah touched on but Darwin Nunez did what Darwin Nunez does, squandering a big chance by shooting straight at Jordan Pickford.

Soon, Nunez was making chances, heading for Luis Diaz, who also shot too close to Pickford, and then laying off for Salah who miscued one shot, then skied his second attempt.

Slowly but surely, Liverpool were getting a grip and in first-half injury-time, Andy Robertson’s angled shot was pushed away by Pickford.

Liverpool were dominating possession early in the second half but a cracking long-range effort from McNeil was pushed away by Alisson.

And from the resulting McNeil, Calvert-Lewin leapt like Zebedee on ecstasy, between Van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold, to nut home at the back post.

Diaz crashed a shoot against the inside of the post but that was as close as it got.

The neighbours had turned up the volume and Liverpool had collapsed amid the din.

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Jurgen Klopp will need something special to end his final campaign at Liverpool with his hands on the Premier League trophy[/caption]

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Everton have all but secured safety with the victory[/caption]

SEE HOW IT HAPPENED…