James Tarkowski is a hero to us all after his last-minute goal in the last-ever Merseyside derby at Goodison Park royally ruffled Liverpool feathers. Are those wheels coming off?
We’ve got Storm Darragh to thank for a Merseyside derby worthy of the gravitas of it being the last one ever at Goodison Park. This was A Proper Game Of Football that would likely have been a cake-walk for Liverpool had it been played as originally scheduled on December 7, when – anomalous 4-0 win over Wolves aside – Everton were in the midst of their six-game goalless run under doomed manager Sean Dyche.
Rather than a Saturday lunchtime kick-off between two sides at opposite ends of the confidence scales we were treated to blue fares outside the historic stadium and a raucous atmosphere under the lights thanks to Everton fans with a genuine hope that their team could turn a Liverpool blip into something approaching a crisis.
They will have been buoyed by Liverpool’s shock defeat to Plymouth in the FA Cup, and by Arne Slot’s admission after that quadruple-ending blunder that They Don’t Like It Up’Em.
“I think we’ve seen during this season, we’ve seen a few times already, that it’s a game plan, a playing style, which is difficult for our starters, but also for the ones that played today. So, constantly long balls, second balls, long balls, second balls. It’s difficult for every team.
“We had it with [Manchester] United at home for example as well. They had a similar playing style going to a very low block [then] kick every ball long, and then we played with our starters.”
That was always going to be the Everton plan here, and it worked in the most dramatic and glorious way imaginable.
Beto was sent out to ruffle the feathers of Ibrahima Konate and Virgil Van Dijk, both of whom knew full well they were in a game, which doesn’t sound like much but definitely is given they’ve cruised through so much of the Premier League season.
And he followed up his brace against Leicester with a lovely goal to open the scoring here, catching Konate cold as he ran in behind him to latch onto Jarrad Branthwaite’s through ball from a free-kick, before opening up his body and sliding the ball under Alisson.
There aren’t too many centre-backs who could pull off that assist and Branthwaite was magnificent throughout, combining Proper Defending with composure on the ball to play telling passes through the lines, with a moment where he put his head where it didn’t belong far from the only point where he reminded us of a prime John Terry.
He would have walked away with the Man of the Match award had it not been for the preposterous Mohamed Salah, who thought he had won the game for Liverpool in the 73rd minute with a perfect touch and finish he made look absurdly simple but absolutely wasn’t after Branthwaite brilliantly blocked Curtis Jones’ effort.
It was just about the only thing he had done since his assist for Alexis Mac Allister to level the scores in the 17th minute. That’s nearly an hour of football in which we barely noticed him, but he was seconds away from his goal and assist winning the game. Seconds. Away.
When Iliman Ndiaye hobbled off in tears with what looks like a serious injury nearly half of Everton’s goals this season left with him, as the remaining players on the pitch have managed just nine goals between them in all competitions to his eight.
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Abdoulaye Doucoure and Jack Harrison both spurned decent chances and the game drifted harmlessly into stoppage time as Liverpool looked to be managing things expertly, before James Tarkwowski, in his 100th appearance for Everton, nearly ripped the net off with his first goal of the season.
Cue pandemonium at Goodison Park before a lengthy VAR check that was very welcome in this instance as it allowed two roars to shake the old foundations rather than one. Liverpool wanted a foul on Konate by Beto as the ball bounced in the box, and probably have a case, but there isn’t a non-Liverpool-supporting soul in existence that didn’t have their fingers crossed in Everton’s favour.
It would have been a killer for those Everton fans, who thoroughly played their part in driving their team forward in those final few minutes, as they did throughout a game that they will remember forever.
It doesn’t get much better than a last-minute equaliser against your bitter rivals in the last-ever derby at your stadium. But Doucoure the adrenaline junky wanted more after the game, celebrating in front of the Liverpool fans to earn himself, Jones and Slot a red card in Scenes That Nobody (Everybody) Wants To See.
A draw for Liverpool given all the emotion of the occasion isn’t a bad result, but the manner of the draw and the way in which they all lost the plot after the final whistle after defeat to Plymouth will require Slot to put a lid on things and calm them down, because while this remains a blip rather than “the beginning of the end”, this wasn’t a game to firmly put creeping doubts to bed.