Liverpool can feel it now. They can sense it. They can almost see it. The Premier League title, only the second in 35 long years, and the first they can properly – post-Covid – celebrate with their fans is in sight.
And those fans played their part here. In that old saying, one so associated with Liverpool as they attack, they almost sucked the ball into the net at the Kop end for the only goal. Such was their desire to win this inevitably fiercely-contested, inevitably controversial Merseyside derby against Everton.
As expected no quarter was given and that tone was set with a violent tackle by James Tarkowski with the Everton captain somehow escaping dismissal early in the first half in a meeting that is so often pocked by sendings-off.
There were four the last time these two sides met, in that tumultuous 2-2 draw at Goodison Park in February, when Tarkowski scored the late – and again controversial – equaliser including one for Liverpool head coach Arne Slot. There should have been another, here, with Tarkowski’s ugly lunge at Alexis Mac Allister.
It was full of force and malice and the centre-half knew exactly what he was doing. He had both feet off the ground and he made sure he hit Mac Allister. And hit him hard.
Some might argue it was full-blooded, he won the ball and it is what we want in a contact sport. Nonsense. The still image of Tarkowski’s face said it all. Deemed reckless? That was ridiculous.
After the briefest of VAR checks – just 10 seconds – the on-field decision of only a caution was upheld. The VAR? That was Paul Tierney, a referee who has hardly endeared himself to Liverpool over the years.
Unsurprisingly, the managers differed in their opinions even if there was a qualification from David Moyes that – after looking at it again – it probably was a red.
Tarkowski remained on the pitch and so there was the second, significant controversy involving him. It surrounded the goal with Everton vehemently arguing that Luis Diaz was offside.
The scorer was Diogo Jota and it came after the kind of wave after wave of attack, quickly recycling the ball, that has been Liverpool’s hallmark at home over the decades. The momentum felt unstoppable and so it proved.
"The Reds BURST through on derby night!" 🎙️
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) April 2, 2025
Diogo Jota opens the scoring in the Merseyside derby in front of the Kop! 💥 pic.twitter.com/r2B3xRAfaa
But the goal and why it was given deserves analysis. Replays showed that Diaz was, indeed, too far forward when an attempt was made by Ryan Gravenberch to play the ball through to him inside the Everton penalty area.
Tarkowski cut it out, Diaz was close to him, ran around to cleverly backheel into Jota’s path and he slalomed through to beat Pickford for his first goal in 11 appearances. It was all the more timely and all the more necessary as this was a game in which Mohamed Salah had strangely little impact and did ...
