Football: Liverpool lose Merseyside derby at Anfield to reach new season-low

A dejected Trent Alexander-Arnold. Photo / Getty

The champions of Europe, then the champions of England and now not even able to claim their ancient right to be the best club on Stanley Park, L4: the great 21st century Merseyside derby dominance Liverpool have held over their near neighbours Everton shattered at last.

The season of Jurgen Klopp's Premier League title defence has passed many milestones for catastrophe, although this one felt historic. Not since Sept 27, 1999, when Steven Gerrard was an impetuous teenager, and before the birth of his midfield successor Curtis Jones, have Everton triumphed at Anfield. Four prime ministers have come and gone, two European Cups and one Uefa Cup have been welcomed through the Shankly Gates, and the main stand has been rebuilt since it last happened.

Unthinkable for Klopp for whom it was the fourth straight Premier League, the sixth in the last 11 in the league and not since 1923 have they lost four consecutive home league games. All that before you consider that the Liverpool manager lost another key figure to injury when Jordan Henderson hobbled off in the first half. He was left to battle on with a defensive pairing of Ozan Kabak and Nat Phillips, whose problems may get worse as the weeks roll on.

Kabak often appears as a young man trying to launch a career in the Premier League, while the roof falls in on his head – it has been a dismal start for him. For Everton, however, this was the end of an era of inferiority that has been painful for the club. As Duncan Ferguson celebrated on the pitch the old player, now coach, embodied the emotion that will have been felt by the blue part of the city. Fireworks exploded somewhere out in the park beyond. Carlo Ancelotti, meanwhile, raised an eyebrow and embraced Klopp: the Italian has never been inhibited by the history of his club.

The two are now level on points, with Liverpool in sixth on the better goal difference and the club struggling to see from where the next win will come. They dominated this game, but Everton took their chances through Richarlison in the first three minutes and then again in the closing stages when substitute Gylfi Sigurdsson converted the penalty that Trent Alexander-Arnold had conceded.

These are remarkable times at Anfield and after all those months of certainty, every matchday passing with wins after win, it now feels like a place of chaos. So many variables and so many outcomes, as Kabak found in the third minute of the first half when his weak clearing header went straight back to Abdoulaye Doucoure.

The game was moving again, but Kabak was still stuck in another phase, turning too late to anticipate the ball of James Rodriguez, slotted between the lines for the run of Richarlison. The Brazilian was already gone before Liverpool's new young defender had turned to react and within a moment Richarlison had clipped his shot beyond Alisson.

The weather made it an imprecise game, with the usual touch of these players and their weighting of passes scrambled by the wind. Yet for some it was a problem to be embraced and for Tom Davies in the Everton midfield and, to a lesser extent, his team-mate Jordan Pickford in goal this was the rough-around-the-edges contest that they wanted.

For Liverpool the first half felt like a disaster – the goal conceded, Kabak trying to play the gales as much as he was playing Everton and then the injury to Henderson. Yet they had chances to draw level and much more of the possession. The big moments eluded them. A great save from Pickford from a Henderson half-volley five minutes before his injury. A Roberto Firmino chance on 19 minutes that should have been converted.

The old shape of Liverpool the champions is there, but not the certainty of the goal at the end of it. The defensive shape of Everton, five in midfield and Richarlison left to fend for himself up front alone made it hard for Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson to get beyond their opposing full-backs. The hard work of the Everton central three slowed down Klopp's players enough. When Andre Gomes was finally booked before half-time, one of the chief complaints from the Liverpool bench had been answered.

The injury to Henderson was a blow that Liverpool found hard to comprehend. He had glided out of defence elegantly, getting a shoulder past Doucoure and then accelerating into the middle of the pitch when something seemed to go in his right thigh. The Liverpool captain tried to play on after treatment but soon Nat Phillips was stripped and ready to form half of the most inexperienced central defence the club has known in some years.

Klopp smiled at the sheer misfortune of it all: what else could he do? Virgil Van Dijk was in the stand at Anfield for the first time most could recall since he injured his cruciate ligament in the corresponding fixture at Goodison in October. So much has changed for the club since then and as things stand they have the Dutchman, Joe Gomez, Joel Matip, Fabinho and now Henderson out from their roster of centre-halves, specialist or otherwise.

Everton had the chance to get their second on 33 minutes when Seamus Coleman got himself into the area and on the end of Lucas Digne's cross, a spectacular header which was nonetheless directed straight at Alisson.

Kabak was booked in the time added on at the end of the first half which did little for his confidence at the beginning of the second, when the flight of the ball continued to mystify him. He and Phillips were less of a concern for Klopp because at the other end his players had so much of the ball. What they did with it, however, was less easy to explain.

There was a hurricane of Liverpool pressure at the start of the second half: a Sadio Mane header, and promising crosses from Jones and Alexander-Arnold. Michael Keane managed a fine challenge on Mane as he got back to his feet, twisting left and getting a touch on the ball with the outside of his foot. Every tackle, every save, including Pickford's stop from Salah on 69 minutes felt like it was the last moment of the match for Everton and yet the time stretched out ahead of them.

The introduction of Dominic Calvert-Lewin, back from injury, was a bold move from Ancelotti and it was him who won the penalty in the 81st minute, falling over the grounded Alexander-Arnold as the full-back tried to get up. Before then Richarlison had turned Phillips and played in the striker and Liverpool failed again to get the defensive details right. Sigurdsson delivered from the penalty spot and finally Everton could say that they had turned the course of local history.