Dismal Everton no match for Liverpool

With Manchester City and Chelsea winning their Premier League away trips to Aston Villa and Watford, respectively, Liverpool had to return with three points from Goodison Park to stay in touch with the top two.

Before the match, it seemed a rather daunting task since the Reds only won once under Jurgen Klopp in their nine trips across Stanley Park.

In the past, Everton had been resilient against their Merseyside rivals at home turf, disregarding their form in the league.

The Toffees were not exactly lighting up the league last season when they snatched four points away from Liverpool.

So, there was a sense of slight concern among the travelling Reds fans that they might fall further behind in the title race following this fixture.

But, the away side did not seem like the team playing in front of a hostile crowd as they dominantly started the match.

Henderson opens scoring

Jordan Henderson opened the scoring before the clock hit double digits, but in the previous nine minutes, Liverpool had breached the Everton backline quite a few times.

Joel Matip and Mohamed Salah could not keep their attempts on target, and Salah forced a save out of Jordan Pickford before Henderson put Liverpool ahead with a magnificent bending shot.

Salah scored in the 19th minute to make amends for his early misses, and for many Everton fans, that was the last straw.

A significant portion of the home support left the arena after 20 minutes, but those who stayed behind had renewed hope when Demarai Gray pulled one back for Everton seven minutes before the interval.

It was all Liverpool before Gray Matip and Trent Alexander Arnold in the wake and made Alisson Becker collect the ball from the back of his net.

Richarlison won the ball against the run of play and fed it to Gray who did brilliantly to pick up his fourth Premier League goal of the season. 

The goal gave the home side a much-needed boost, and Abdoulaye Doucoure almost found the equalizer, but his effort got cleared from the line.

Mane came close to restoring Liverpool’s two-goal lead as well, but the score stood 2-1 at the break, teasing an exciting second half to come.

But, Everton threw away the competitiveness when they hilariously gave away the third goal.

Coleman gives it away

Seamus Coleman made a mess while receiving the ball from a cleared corner, Salah took advantage of it and fired the ball past a helpless Jordan Pickford. 

As the third goal went in, Everton lost the drive to fight back.

With fallen shoulders, they were eagerly waiting for the final whistle to go off.

Before it did, Diego Jota added more to Everton’s misery scoring the fourth Liverpool goal and making it the largest margin of Liverpool victory at Goodison Park since Bob Paisley’s men’s 5-0 win in 1982.

Rafa Benitez was not a popular appointment across the board as many Everton fans did not like him for his Liverpool connection.

After last night’s result, it is not difficult to imagine that Benitez will lose more support among the Everton faithful and another disappointing result against Arsenal on Monday would only make matters worse.