Liverpool roll on.
Last season’s Premier League winners maintained their perfect start with a 2-1 victory against Everton in the Merseyside derby, but it was far from comfortable.
First-half goals from the exceptional Ryan Gravenberch and Hugo Ekitike set Liverpool on course for victory but Everton were sprightly after half-time, and turned the game into a contest in the 58th minute courtesy of Idrissa Gueye’s fine finish.
Ultimately, however, they could not fashion an equaliser and Liverpool breathed a large sigh of relief.
Here, we analyse the major talking points.
How worried should Liverpool’s rivals be?
It is five victories out of five in the Premier League, plus a winning start to their Champions League campaign.
It all sounds rather ominous for their rivals. But might Arne Slot be a little concerned by the way in which Everton — like Bournemouth, like Newcastle United, like Atletico Madrid — fought their way back into the game from 2-0 down?
This was nothing like the comprehensive Liverpool victory the first half suggested it would be. Everton stabilised and deservedly pulled a goal back through Idrissa Gueye after fine work from Jack Grealish and Iliman Ndiaye. From that point, Everton pushed hard for an equaliser, leaving the champions clinging on nervously for the victory.
This was David Moyes’s 23rd game at Anfield as an opposition manager (his 14th with Everton after one with Manchester United, one with Sunderland and seven with West Ham United). His overall record there now stands at no wins, seven draws and 16 defeats.
David Moyes saw his Everton team narrowly beaten ( Stu Forster/Getty Images)
But the Everton manager should draw some consolation from the way his team recovered from that terrible start. Perhaps some of Liverpool’s title rivals will try to take some comfort from that, too — although, looking at the Premier League table, that sounds rather like clutching at straws.
Oliver Kay
How good was Ryan Gravenberch?
Gravenberch needed just 10 seconds to start and finish the sequence that opened the scoring for Liverpool.
The in-form Dutchman collected the ball on the halfway line and pushed forward with intent. As he played a sideways pass to Dominik Szoboszlai, he continued his run into the box and latched onto a Mohamed Salah cross, superbly converting to give Liverpool the lead with less than 10 minutes on the clock.
For a deep-lying midfielder who had only scored one Premier League goal until the start of this season, Gravenberch made the finish look easy. He already has more Premier League goals (two) in 2025-26 than in his previous two full campaigns.
The move started with a tackle from Cody Gakpo on Ndiaye — initially contested by Everton, but clearly not worthy of a foul.
Gravenberch (circled below) then built up play and first bypassed the Everton midfield before bursting into a gap in their back line.
His clever run was equally as important as what came next, yet everything that followed oozed class. He placed his left foot into the ground to compose himself as he met the ball that was spinning away from him.
Then, he wrapped his foot around the awkwardly bouncing ball to hook a half-volley over Jordan Pickford.
The timing was perfect, the technique exquisite, and that was the platform Liverpool needed.
Gravenberch continued to play a major role, playing a perfectly weighted pass to set up Ekitike for the second goal, and his presence in the middle showed why he has developed into an indispensable all-action midfielder.
Gregg Evans
How did Grealish cause Liverpool problems?
For the first half-hour, Everton’s defence was under siege. Grealish, on the left wing, was the obvious outlet, but he, like others, had found himself swarmed by red shirts. By the midway point of the first half, he had only completed a single pass.
But Grealish’s influence grew significantly. On 27 minutes, he dummied and shimmied away from Gravenberch near the touchline and played a clever pass from which Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall should have done better than shoot wide of the near post. As Everton found a foothold in the game, he became the outlet they were looking for.
Jack Grealish goes up against Conor Bradley (Stu Forster/Getty Images)
Early in the second half, he found himself in space on the edge of the Liverpool penalty area, looked inside and tried a cutback that Gakpo easily intercepted. Grealish looked annoyed with himself, as if promising he would not make the same mistake again.
Sure enough, when a similar opportunity arose on 58 minutes, he took the outside route past Conor Bradley and hung a cross towards the far post, where Ndiaye’s lay-off was buried by Gueye to offer Everton a way back into the game.
Oliver Kay
How can Ekitike be dropped?
A tally of three goals in five Premier League games for Ekitike suggests the new Liverpool striker has quickly found his feet.
His status as an upgrade on Darwin Nunez is already evident — Ekitike is already two goals shy of matching the former Liverpool striker’s league goal tally from last season — so the big question is, can Ekitike continue starting in the big games when Alexander Isak is fully fit and up to speed?
There’s no obvious way to squeeze both players into the front line without sacrificing Salah, and that appears very unlikely.
But with Ekitike in such good form, he has become almost undroppable. His brilliant one-touch control and finish to score Liverpool’s second goal on Saturday was stunning and a sign of how the Frenchman mixes class with efficiency.
Hugo Ekitike scores his fourth Liverpool goal (Stu Forster/Getty Images)
Perhaps Isak will have to remain patient and wait for his start in the Premier League, or, like we saw in this game, the pair continue to share the action.
Bringing on Isak from the bench, even with Ekitike already in top form, was a clear display of Liverpool’s attacking riches. Keeping both happy is going to be a challenge.
Gregg Evans
Why did Slot rejig his midfield?
Teams travelling to Anfield aren’t expected to control possession and dominate Slot’s Liverpool. That’s why finding attacking opportunities on the counter is usually a valuable solution.
However, in the first half of this Merseyside derby, Everton didn’t have many of those because Liverpool’s midfield three of Szoboszlai, Alexis Mac Allister and Gravenberch were always in position to counter-press efficiently if the team lost the ball.
Alexis Mac Allister was part of Liverpool’s midfield on Saturday (Carl Recine/Getty Images)
Slot’s decision not to start Florian Wirtz and return to the midfield that won him the Premier League title last season made sense. In a derby, where the intensity will surely rise, and the match can turn transitional, starting with Szoboszlai, Mac Allister and Gravenberch offered security on the ball and explosiveness to win it back quickly.
That trio knew where they needed to be when Liverpool had the ball. Then, when Liverpool lost possession, they counter-pressed quickly to limit Everton’s transitions. Szoboszlai, Mac Allister and Gravenberch also dealt well with Everton’s long balls and were strong in the duels.
However, Liverpool lost some control in the second half and their counter-pressing intensity dropped. In the build-up to Everton’s first goal, Mac Allister was dispossessed in midfield and Gueye scored from that counter.
Ahmed Walid
How did Everton wrestle back control?
Slot’s reaction to Everton’s gaining momentum was to replace Mac Allister with Curtis Jones and introduce Wirtz in place of Gakpo.
Yet the match became more broken up as Liverpool weren’t as efficient on the ball. Theoretically, a transitional game suits the profiles of Liverpool’s attackers, too, and Salah was close to making it 3-0 from a counter-attack early in the second half, before Gueye’s goal.
It’s not the kind of match you want to play in a derby, though, especially not against this Everton team. As seen in the second half, it allows them to attack space against an unstructured defence.
Despite the victory, Liverpool’s inability to control the second half here is something that could be more damaging against stronger opponents.
Ahmed Walid
What did Arne Slot say?
The Liverpool head coach was satisfied with the result give his team’s crowded schedule which saw him play against Atletico Madrid on Wednesday night.
“We knew how difficult it was going to be,” he told TNT Sport. “Three games in seven days and an early kick-off on Saturday. I don’t mind that but I don’t like it if we play on Wednesday evening. You can see how much impact this has because in the first half, when we were fresh, we were unbelievable.
“People will say I have such a big squad, yes I have — that’s how we managed to win all three games! In other leagues, where I come from this would to happen that you have an early kick-off or you would get more time. You would ask the FA to postpone by a day because of injury risk.”
What did David Moyes say?
The Everton manager felt his side paid the price for a lacklustre first-half performance and defended his strikers despite seeing them once again fail to score.
“We didn’t do enough,” he told TNT. “We just lacked a little bit. Our second-half performance was a lot more like where we should have been at.
“We still need to supply the forwards with opportunities. We have had to buy within our means, and will hugely support what we have got. I thought (Thierno) Barry came on and had moments, but he is still learning.”
What next for Liverpool?
Tuesday, September 23: Southampton (Home), Carabao Cup third round, 8pm UK, 3pm ET
What next for Everton?
Tuesday, September 23: Wolves (Away), Carabao Cup third round, 7:45pm UK, 2:45pm ET
(Top photo: Stu Forster/Getty Images)
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