High stakes have a way of bringing out the best from Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool, and Everton found out the hard way on Wednesday evening.
Playing away, Liverpool went off on Rafa Benitez’s Everton, blitzing their city rivals 4-1.
A storied rivalry, away from home, against a decent Everton side was supposed to be a tad bit more challenging.
Well, it wasn’t.
Instead, it was Matip and Salah going close in the opening minutes, before Jordan Henderson showed them how to keep the ball on target and in the back of the net with a beautiful curler.
That was in the ninth minute, Liverpool 1-0.
Ten minutes later, Salah would put his lesson to use. Through on goal, the Reds’ talisman discarded Jordan Pickford with a fine finish (as always).
Two up and in control, Liverpool would lose focus, and Demarai Gray made sure to capitalise, pulling one back for Everton just before the break.
That goal to ruin the clean sheet fired Liverpool into kill mode, as Klopp’s entered the second half with purpose.
Again it would be Salah with another one of those me-running-the-length-of-your-
Diogo Jota put the icing on the cake just before the final ten minutes, sealing an emphatic 4-1 win.
The win can only take Liverpool as far as third, though, as both Chelsea and Manchester City took care of business against their opponents.
Chelsea found a new gear to beat Watford 2-1 at Vicarage road after an emergency halted the game, while City edged out a 2-1 victory against Gerrard’s Aston Villa.
Southampton and Leicester played to a thrilling 2-2 stalemate. West Ham and Brighton had a similar end with a 1-1 draw. Wolves and Burnley showed no offensive cutting edge, and neither team could get on the score sheet in their 0-0 draw at Molineux.
