Until recently, Sir Alex Ferguson was not afflicted by the plague of noisy neighbors, unlike Jurgen Klopp.

Over his eight and a half years in charge, Klopp had never lost at Goodison Park and had never lost a Merseyside derby in front of fans.

However, as Goodison hummed and rattled and Sean Dyche is squad unleashed a fierce aerial assault on Liverpool during their last attack of the match, Klopp was ultimately brought low.

What was to be the German team’s final quadruple now seems likely to be confined to the Carabao Cup as a minor trinket.

With Manchester City trailing by just one point with two games remaining and Arsenal leading by three, Liverpool is undoubtedly not going to win the title at this moment.

It will have delighted former Everton player Mikel Arteta. Guardiola, Pep too.

This was Liverpool’s fourth loss in a string of nine games, during which they had epically failed to win three titles.

There were no justifications. Even with all of their strength, Liverpool was unable to withstand Everton’s direct approach, especially with their fierce bully up top in Dominic Calvert-Lewin.

The center striker for Everton just avoided robbing Ibrahima Konate of his head and taking Virgi Van Dijk of his pocket money.

After being denied a penalty early on and Jarrad Branthwaite’s first-half goal going in, Calvert-Lewin scored a breathtaking header for the second goal.

Liverpool’s title challenge hit a road block at Goodison ParkCredit: Getty

Everton punished their bitter rivals in a 2-0 win

Jarrad Branthwaite opened the scoring for Everton

Everton are surely safe now, despite their points deductions. This was a third straight home for Dyche and it was richly deserved.

Liverpool missed a shedload of chances, which has been the story of their season.

And particularly since Klopp announced his intention to leave, back in January.

The Reds were virtually invincible until that moment but have been beaten five times since.

Remarkably, they were a more effective side when they were injury-ravaged and stuffed full with kids.

Klopp’s only previous derby defeat had come at an empty Anfield during the pandemic season of 2020-21.

Dyche is the eighth Everton boss Klopp has faced in this fixture and only the second to have beaten the German, after Carlo Ancelotti.

And how the blue half of Scouseville loved it. They have been heartily sick of all the cloying ‘This Means More’ sentimentality around Klopp’s impending departure.

Klopp has won fewer English titles than either Howard Kendall or Harry Catterick, as Evertonians have kept reminding their rivals, and that is surely how it is going to remain.

The Anfield chief made five changes after a mix-and-match team had kept them in the title hunt with an impressive win at Fulham on Sunday.

But there were two serious scares for Liverpool inside the opening six minutes.

First, Abdoulaye Doucoure stabbed horribly wide after a flowing Everton move, then after all the shenanigans of Sunday’s win over Nottingham Forest, came another penalty that never was.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin rose up to nod home the second

After James Tarkowski won a crucial tackle on the halfway line, Jack Harrison released Calvert-Lewin with a stunning outside-of-the-boot ball, and Alisson took him down.

 

Reference Calvert-Lewin was offside, as determined by VAR, despite Andy Madley’s point being made.

 

Ben Godfrey did a great job of clearing a Salah ball that was headed towards goal.

 

However, Dyche is team was in complete control, pressing hard, going long, and acting like dogs of war.

 

Godfrey missed a clear header from a Dwight McNeil free-kick, and Calvert-Lewin’s subsequent header was blocked by Alisson at close range.

 

Everton took the lead after 27 minutes, and it was well-deserved.

 

After a series of headers were won by Dyche is team in a goalmouth scramble, Alexis Mac Allister erred in his attempt to clear the ball, which allowed Branthwaite to shoot under Alisson, off the post, and just over the line.

Naturally, there was a protracted VAR wait. However, even Nottingham Forest would concur that David Coote, a supporter of Notts County, had no justification to rule it out from Stockley Park.

Liverpool had given up the lead for the sixteenth time in the Premier League this year, but they had usually recovered to win.

Soon after, Mac Allister opened things up for Everton with a deft pass. Salah touched on it, but Darwin Nunez wasted a great opportunity by shooting directly at Jordan Pickford.

Nunez soon started taking chances, moving toward Luis Diaz, who again shot too close to Pickford, and then cutting Salah off after the latter missed his first attempt and then skied the second.

Liverpool was starting to gain momentum, and in injury time in the first half, Pickford saved an angled attempt from Andy Robertson.

Despite Liverpool’s early dominance in possession in the second half, Alisson denied a fantastic long-range effort from McNeil.

And from the resulting McNeil, Calvert-Lewin leaped between Van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold like Zebedee in a state of pleasure, nutting home at the back post.

Diaz came the closest as he banged a shot into the inside of the post.

Liverpool had fallen to the ground in the commotion as the neighbors had turned up the music.

Jurgen Klopp will need something special to end his final campaign at Liverpool with his hands on the Premier League trophy

Everton have all but secured safety with the victory