Four red cards and ‘boiling hot mayhem’ – anatomy of Everton v Liverpool and a famous Merseyside derby

Perhaps Arne Slot should have heeded his own advice. The Dutchman had called for “cool heads” in his first Merseyside derby. And so, in an explosive end to Liverpool’s last ever trip to Goodison Park, the last red cards given in this fixture, at this historic ground, went to the manager who seemed a byword for calmness and his assistant.

What a way it was for Goodison to bid farewell to this fixture. Four red cards after the final whistle, a 98th-minute equaliser that came laced in quality as well as controversy and drama, this was a reminder of the danger of underestimating Evertonian defiance, an illustration this game can be happy and angry, unpredictable and spectacular. There was a pitch invasion and a melée, the latest goal on record in a Merseyside derby. There was James Tarkowski, a centre-back volleying in like a centre-forward, to upend everyone’s night. He will forever have the distinction of being the last scorer in a Goodison derby.

It looked like being Mohamed Salah. That prospect may have made the Liverpool fans giddy. “We won the league at Goodison Park,” they chorused, eyeing a nine-point lead at the division’s summit. Instead, it is a mere seven. They will probably win the league, but it was Everton who ended up revelling when Tarkowski conjured a magnificent equaliser, prompting fans to charge on to the pitch to mob the scorer. Everton had to endure a lengthy and nervous wait for a VAR check – scarcely a worry when Goodison hosted its first derby in 1894 – before the goal stood.

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The final whistle, somehow, only ramped up the drama. Abdoulaye Doucoure’s celebrations in front of the Liverpool fans riled Curtis Jones. A wrestling match brought a skirmish and a sending-off apiece for midfielders who had already been booked. It scarcely seemed to dampen Doucoure’s mood as he celebrated. The Evertonian was deemed the instigator by his opponents. “It was a very big provocation from one certain player,” said Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk. David Moyes was irritated, too. “I'm disappointed with Doucs because we need him,” he said. Iliman Ndiaye’s knee injury had made a slender squad smaller even before Doucoure got suspended and Moyes said: “We're down on numbers at the moment.”

His Liverpool counterpart was rather more animated; uncharacteristically for a man who spends much of his time watching matches with his hands planted in his pockets. Slot and his sidekick Sipke Hulshoff got their marching orders for ranting at referee Michael Oliver. Who, while both sides of Merseyside will disagree, officiated well. He brandished the yellow card eight times, half of them to the warring parties of Jones and Doucoure, in a match that was fast, fierce and ultimately furious.

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“It was mayhem all game, an old-fashioned throwback,” said Moyes. The novel element came in Liverpool naming a Premier League 11 without an Englishman; when Slot brought on two locals, one of them, Jones, ended up getting carried away by the occasion. He was not alone in that.

“The place was boiling hot all night,” said Moyes. There was blue smoke in the streets around Goodison beforehand, the smell of cordite in the air. “The support was unbelievable,” added Moyes. “It was incredible and fitting they got an end like they did.” And so the eventual scoreline is level: 2-2 on the night, 41-41 apiece over 131 years and 120 meetings. “Liverpool are the top team in Europe,” Moyes said. “Our players tried to find a way to bridge the gap.” They did, with spirit and support, with Liverpool below their best and Tarkowski delivering a moment of inspiration. There was a banner in the Gwladys Street End saluting Brian Labone, one of Everton’s great captains. Goodison’s last goal in this rivalry came from the man with the Everton armband. “That goal will be remembered in history,” said Moyes. It was the sweetest of strikes.

So a fixture with a recent tradition of 0-0 draws instead saw the sides trade early goals and then late ones. The newly prolific Beto got a third goal in two league games; a third with an assured finish, too. Having rewatched last season’s defeat, Slot had warned Liverpool not to concede free kicks and Everton have long had an emphasis on set-pieces, but this was a variant on a theme; not the aerial ball beloved of Sean Dyche’s teams but a low free kick by Jarrad Branthwaite, quickly taken, finding Beto running in behind Ibrahima Konate.

Everton had five minutes to enjoy their advantage. Then Alexis Mac Allister glanced in a header from Salah’s cross. Fault could be found with Vitalii Mykolenko, who failed to cut out the pass to Salah, and Tarkowski, left flat-footed in the penalty area; redemption was to follow for him.

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And Everton were undeterred. They were the more threatening in the second half so it was against the run of play that Liverpool led when Salah prodded in a far-post shot. The chance owed much to Slot’s substitutions; the manager was still thinking clearly then. Darwin Nunez teeing up Jones, whose shot was headed by Branthwaite, but only to Salah. It took the Egyptian’s tally for the season to 27 goals and he almost added another with a curler that Jordan Pickford saved in spectacular fashion.

The significance of that became clear in injury time. The Moyes renaissance yielded a 10th point from four games. Liverpool felt the equaliser should have been chalked off, that Beto had fouled Konate. Everton enjoyed Tarkowski’s glorious goal. Cue the red cards, the red mist, the angry Reds. “There was a bit of to-ing and fro-ing at the end which might have added to the entertainment,” said Moyes, with a mixture of understatement and a quaint choice of words. Goodison’s final derby and its last night game showed the magic of the old place. Bramley-Moore Dock has quite a lot to live up to.