Everton all but end Liverpool's title dream

Everton 2 Liverpool 0 

Liverpool's title hopes were dealt a possibly fatal blow as Everton made a giant stride to Premier League safety with their first home Merseyside derby win since 2010.

Jurgen Klopp said before the game he has never enjoyed derbies because of the pressure surrounding them and he certainly will not savour his 19th and final fixture against the fired-up Toffees.

Goals in each half from Jarrad Branthwaite and Dominic Calvert-Lewin earned Sean Dyche's team a deserved victory that lifts them eight points clear of the bottom three with four games remaining.

And with home games to come against Brentford and Sheffield United, sandwiching an away trip to third from bottom Luton, they will confident of avoiding a last day survival battle for a third season running.

But the defeat means Liverpool have dropped eight points in their last four League games and leaves them now praying that both title rivals Arsenal and Manchester City suffer a similar - if highly unlikely - collapse.

Klopp had lost only one of his previous 18 derbies in all competitions and that was in a behind closed doors game at Anfield during the Covid lockdown in 2021.

He could have few complaints about this defeat however with dogged Everton producing arguably their best performance of the season although Liverpool missed a number of good chances to get themselves back into the game while Jordan Pickford pulled off a string of fine saves to underline while he is England's no 1.

Mo Salah and Darwin Nunez, both recalled after being rested for the win at Fulham, left their shooting boots at home again and the closest Liverpool came to scoring was when Luis Diaz's shot hit the post in the second half.

Everton were right at it from the