Liverpool continued its march towards the Premier League title with a 1-0 victory over Everton in a scrappy Merseyside derby as Diogo Jota slotted home the winner in the second half on Wednesday.
The champion elect, with 73 points after 30 games, restored its 12-point lead over second-placed Arsenal while Everton, whose nine-game league unbeaten run ended, is 15th on 34 points.
Everton’s Beto had an early goal chalked off for offside and missed a sitter before Jota broke the deadlock in the 57th minute with his first goal in two-and-a-half months. Anfield erupted when Luis Diaz back-heeled the ball into Jota’s path, and the Portuguese forward beat a tackle before firing into the net.
Liverpool fans thought Everton should have been reduced to 10 men after 11 minutes following a fierce tackle by defender James Tarkowski on Alexis Mac Allister, but Everton’s captain was only shown a yellow card.
The teams had met in an explosive derby in February that ended 2-2, with Tarkowski equalising deep in stoppage time in a chaotic game that featured four red cards, including one to Liverpool manager Arne Slot.
While Liverpool is unbeaten in 26 league games, it went into last month’s international break on a negative note after being eliminated by Paris St Germain in the Champions League and losing to Newcastle United in the League Cup final.
Slot’s men looked sluggish and disjointed on Wednesday, and Everton could have gone ahead when Beto raced away from defender Virgil van Dijk and beat goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher before hitting his shot against the post.
Kelleher started in goal for Liverpool, with regular starter Alisson recovering from a concussion suffered on international duty with Brazil.
The heated mood in Anfield was cranked up another notch with the contentious early tackle. Tarkowski won the ball, but his studs-up follow-through caught Mac Allister square in the calf. VAR confirmed the decision of a yellow card, which gave the centre back the joint-most yellow cards without being sent off in Premier League history, with 63.
Everton manager David Moyes remained without a victory at Anfield in 22 games, leading Manchester United, Sunderland and West Ham United as well as his current team.
