Neil Atkinson’s post-match review for The Anfield Wrap after Everton 1 Liverpool 2 in the 2025-2026 Premier League at the Hill Dickinson Stadium…
Sometimes in my life
I’d take all my hopes and dreams
All my ambitions and all my aspirations
And I’d give them all up
Trade them all in
Put them all to one side
For a springboard
And a pair of shorts
And a plain white t-shirt
And the ability to do a perfect backflip
Ballboy, I Hate Scotland.
Before a ball was kicked this season, before the season ebbed into disappointment, before the money spent became a millstone, I looked at this game, the first Merseyside Derby at The Hill Dickinson, and said winning that this season would be better than winning the EFL Cup.
The Merseyside Derby had become weirdly contested across the last few seasons. The Anfield one should be a banker. The Goodison one too often reduced to them just stopping us.
But the first one at their new stadium, their brave fresh start, it had so much grist in it back in June of 2025.
In the run up, that only grew. A Liverpool side short of gumption for months, weak on the road, underperforming in the table, stars leaving, new stars not yet aligned. Everton not quite on the march but upwardly mobile. Interested in Europe.
It shouldn’t have been all of our hopes and aspirations. It shouldn’t have felt like a final. But it did feel like a final; a chance for our spluttering heroes to redeem themselves and the season. For our hosts and neighbours it was their last remaining moment of this new start season. A win the crowning moment of a reset.
And Liverpool have, since 1995, got far more experience in finals.
When the goal that Everton think is their opener goes in, Ndiaye and nearly 50,000 Evertonians believe that he is the first person to score in the Merseyside Derby at their new stadium. Turns out he wasn’t. The combined forces of the offside rule and Mo Salah prove him wrong. It almost makes everything okay whatever the result. Almost.
But bitterness aside, it is a crucial moment. The first-half is a mentality toss up. Who can psychologically freak the others out? Who can believe this one is theirs? Who can bounce back? Liverpool from the bulge of the net, or Everton from the embarrassment of celebrating what they will always feel is a history-making goal only to be VARred into submission?
Turns out it’s us. Turns out it’s Liverpool that will have our moment of history. Our king choosing to pelt one home on his last away derby. When we reach the end of our lives, we’ll close our eyes and watch on the back of our eyelids Cody Gakpo perfectly cross the ball to Mo Salah, and Mo Salah apply perfect diagonal power to beat Jordan Pickford.
The occasion had been set and it meant the world and so this: Mo Salah agreed. Mo Salah’s Liverpool farewell theoretically should have involved serious silverware. A goal in a Champions League Final. Instead though he had this. And he would make the most of it.
Mo Salah though has never been afraid of rolling his sleeves up for Liverpool. Never been too good for the muck and bullets. Never not been able to find the purity of moment. After he opens the scoring and then spends the match fighting for his fucking life, he’s never been more of a Liverpudlian. He’s never made the best of a bad situation more.
As Curtis Jones celebrated by placing an imaginary crown on Mo’s head, we’re all feeling the same. It’s been an honour to watch him. He has worked hard, he has stood up for us. He has made the people happy. It’s what Liverpool players are supposed to do and we could not have asked for more.
The King graced the new Evertonian palace. It should be pleased it got to see the hem of his garment.
I think if I could do it
The seconds would feel like hours to me
It would be like medicine
Staying with me during the days and during the weeks
when I’m just pushing on
Just getting by
We are, however, something of a shambles at the back. Liverpool’s injury list is now way longer than it should be and this is hurting us in defence. Starting this game with Curtis Jones at right-back is not a sign of success. One of the many questions Arne Slot needs to answer is whether the injury rate is pure misfortune, or a fixable thing.
Either way, Ibou Konate doesn’t have his best game but is scrapping for everything. Everton are able to exploit gaps on the left to get Dewsbury-Hall and Beto in some scary positions. Our defence needs much more direction.
Everton exploit the lack of confidence and direction as the second-half kicks off. Their forwards are pouncing on every misspass, and counter-attacking against what is sometimes ponderous play from Liverpool. Beto’s equaliser on the 54th minute is the product and it’s weirdly been coming due to Liverpool being lackadaisical.
We never really get on top of the game and sparks begin to fly. The referee does a reasonable job and is clearly trying to keep his book in his pocket.
Amongst the clattering and banging into each other, Mamardashvili takes a boot in the wrong place and can’t continue. Arne Slot has so few to sit on the subs bench but thankfully, this game seems to demonstrate a shift in fortune for Liverpool subs. Freddie Woodman might not have chosen this but aside from one shaky header brought on by the captain misplacing the lines on the pitch, he does well.
The minutes tick through. What you notice is the Liverpool chances. Cody Gakpo coming through the middle, where Everton don’t seem to expect him to be. He doesn’t score, but he could. Isak doesn’t impose himself on the game, but he looks much more in it, and the forwards look like a unit more than almost any point this season.
The substitutions make sense today. When Ngumoha comes on, he gets a quick briefing from Cody Gakpo and Mo Salah and slots right in. Again, he doesn’t score but he looks very much like he might. Evertonian heads fall slightly. Keep going, red men, keep going.
Clashes of heads, feet in wrong places, and the general aggression of the Merseyside Derby means stoppage time, and lots of it. Eleven minutes. At the start of this period, the mood seems with the Blues. No doubt feeling like it’s their turn for a last minute winner, it’s their turn to be on top, it’s their turn to represent the city in Europe. Or whatever.
The clock ticks and suddenly they don’t want to know. Suddenly turns don’t matter. Suddenly everywhere is Curtis Jones and he has decided this is Liverpool’s time. Our turn because of the point of the Merseyside Derby is that it is always our turn.
Whatever; it turns up in the shape of the Agamemnon of Football aka Virgil van Dijk. When Liverpool get a corner on 90+9, he lines up his players and puts a Konate-shaped barrier between himself and Pickford. Szoboszlai’s perfect corner sent to the back of the net by the back of Van Dijk’s head. Leader and hero. You beautiful man. Our man. Our time.
Our city. Last year the world belonged to us. And the world will again but today the city does and you know what? The feeling is magnificent. The feeling is hard to beat.
And I’m not the boy I used to be
And although I’ve more or less accepted it
Although I’m no longer trying to change it
I still regret it
I regret it every day
This season of emotion is nearly done. None of it the emotion we wanted. The pain of loss, the grief that robs confidence and makes every decision seem doubtful. Getting through the unfairness of life is hard. But keeping going, keeping trying, keeping trying to be good sometimes is its own reward. We all have times when we want to shout and throw things in frustration, no doubt the reds on the pitch do too. The harder way to deal with it all is to work.
To try to earn redemption. That’s what Liverpool do today. It’s joyous, mind-alteringly joyous in that ground, with a poor season behind us, and broken hearts in mind, always. But even just trying is sometimes a way to win. And redemption it is, today.
I’m not the boy I used to be. But the game is simple. Be brave. Be a gang. Hang in for each other and the millions that love you. And do the decent thing. A springboard, a pair of shorts and Virgil van Dijk with a perfect leap.
Days don’t get better than this. The joy is unconfined.
Because it means everything.
Subscribe for immediate post-match reaction from around the ground…
