Relegation-haunted Everton gave Quad-chasing Liverpool more of a game than might have been expected at Anfield, but ultimately it’s as you were at the top of the table while things have take a distinct turn for the bleak at the bottom for the Toffees…
1. Anyone with even a passing knowledge of football knows that the first thing that happens in any derby match is that the formbook takes a short, sharp flight straight out of the nearest window. It’s an overplayed trope, of course, but not without a kernel of truth. Derby games are different. Derby games do hit different. If they felt like other matches they wouldn’t be a thing, and they are. The deeply concerning thing for Everton, though, is that the rapidly diverging current statuses of these two rivals mean that only losing 2-0 in a game where they posed the Quad-chasers really serious problems for a good hour probably does constitute the formbook going out the window. Liverpool had won their last 11 home games in the Premier League, including two 4-0 wins against Big Six opposition, another against Southampton and a 6-0 against Leeds. Everton came here with comfortably the worst away record in the division and a run of seven straight defeats on the road including a 5-0 stomping at Spurs and a 4-0 FA Cup shellacking at Crystal Palace. The Toffees avoided humiliation and that was far from certain at 4.30pm.
2. One similarity for these two teams on different trajectories coming into this match, though: their situations had got worse through no fault of their own since they last played. For Liverpool, two Manchester City wins turning a two-point lead at the top into a four-point deficit. For Everton, two Burnley wins plunging them into the bottom three. Even here, though, it’s far more damaging for Everton. Those Burnley wins were far less predictable than City’s, for one thing, and Liverpool are able to respond in a way Everton right now simply cannot. You’ll hear plenty of talk from…
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