Ashley Young was dismissed for a second bookable offence, leaving Everton to try and hold out for almost an hour
Ashley Young became the latest Everton player to be sent off in a Merseyside derby and the Toffees’ stubborn resistance was eventually undermined when Michael Keane’s handball allowed the reds to break the deadlock from the spot with 15 minutes to go.
Young was already on a booking for a cynical check on Luis Diaz in the 18th minute and he received his marching orders from Craig Pawson seven minutes before half-time for fouling the same player near the byline.
It ruined yet another Merseyside derby and reduced the Blues to a gameplan of simply trying to hang on before they pivoted towards attack late on after falling behind and were caught two-against-one on the counter-attack deep in stoppage time and Mohamed Salah completed his brace.
Despite Idrissa Gueye being fit again after withdrawing from the win over Bournemouth with a foot injury, Amadou Onana and James Garner kept their places in midfield, with Young again preferred to Nathan Patterson at right-back and Jack Harrison lining up ahead of him in right midfield.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin had the first chance of the game when Dwight McNeil swung in a cross before a minute had elapsed but the striker could only head straight at Alisson Becker.
That would the visitors’ best of the game because, as expected, Liverpool had the lion’s share of possession and chances even before Everton were reduced 10 men.
The reds’ best chance appeared to be on the break as Dyche’s side left themselves open from attacking set-pieces, with Young getting back well to deflect Diaz’s shot behind when the Colombian looked odds-on to score in the 12th minute.
Five minutes later, Liverpool raced away from defending a corner at one end to almost score at the other but this time Onana made an excellent covering tackle to break it up in his own box.
Harrison was fouled by Kostas Tsimikas in the 20th minute for what looked to be the same kind of challenge as the one for which Young was fouled but the referee was nonplussed by James Tarkowski’s protestations.
Tarkowski’s trip on Diogo Jota gave the Portuguese the chance to try and beat Jordan Pickford from a direct free-kick but could only drive his shot into the defensive wall and when Salah barged McNeil off the ball three minutes later, he could only sweep a curling effort over the crossbar.
The complexion of the game changed completely, though, when Young jumped in recklessly on Diaz and chopped him down just outside the area and, after a pause from referee, was shown a second yellow card.
Trent Alexander-Arnold smashed a shot a couple of feet over at one end and McNeil forced Alisson into tipping the ball over his own bar at the other but it was goalless at the halfway stage.
Sean Dyche switched to a more defensive posture to start the second half, withdrawing Harrison and McNeil and throwing Keane and Patterson on in their stead and for half an hour, the Blues were holding steady.
Tarkowski’s excellent block denied Salah a clear shot at goal from about eight yards out and he followed that up by repelling Jota from the rebound in the 52nd minute.
Dyche then replaced Calvert-Lewin with Beto but, naturally, it was Jürgen Klopp’s men who continued to threaten, Patterson surviving howls for a penalty when Diaz went down in the box under his challenge but a minute later, Keane gave Pawson, who had earlier waved away appeals for a second yellow card for Ibrahima Konaté, the pretext to award the decisive spot-kick.
Diaz’s cross had struck the defender’s out-stretched hand and while the referee had opted not to blow for a penalty, Video Assistant Referee David Coote advised him to take another look on the pitch-side monitor and he duly reversed his decision.
Salah drove home the resulting penalty and it was, effecitively, game over with 15 minutes of the 90 to go.
Pickford saved from Jota, substitute Darwin Nunez’s centre ricocheted off Jarrad Branthwaite and narrowly behind, Pickford did superbly to push Harvey Elliott’s stinging long-range shot onto the bar and over, and Jota fizzed one into the side-netting as the reds tried to kill the game.
They did that as Everton tried to force an unlikely equaliser and were undone on the break as Nunez and Salah tore away and the Egyptian converted the Uruguayan’s pass to make it 2-0.
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Tim Greeley
First read I saw it as Keane’s handball “allowed the refs to break the deadlock” and I think it should actually be that…
Jack Conver
It was ever thus.
Pawson a disgrace. Everton and the other also-rans are a disgrace for going along with the awful officialdom of matches when playing the so-called big teams. The Premier Leaguefor not having the balls to do anything about it either are a disgrace.
Until a team walks off when an obvious piece of biased referring has taken place, ie, Konate not getting a second yellow, nothing will change. Refuse to carry on the game. Face up to the powers that be – otherwise, it will continue to be ever thus.
Barry Hesketh
I’ve just watched the highlights on Everton TV, if every player was booked twice for the ‘offences’ that Young committed in today’s game, it would be five-a-side by half-time, in most games.
First one doesn’t even seem to me to be a foul, the second one, possibly a yellow, but that happens about a dozen times in a match without a card being shown.
Ernie Baywood
We have a genuine complaint about Konate. And about Tsimikas not being booked.
I thought they were pretty lenient with Patterson’s challenge in the area just before the handball.
I don’t think you can credibly complain about the Young second yellow or the Keane handball. I reckon the vast majority of objective observers would give both of those.
But there’s a reason that we don’t get the rub of the green. We don’t have the ball. The team that has the ball isn’t committing offences.
I’m not advocating for all-out possession. I’m advocating for just wanting some of the ball. You can’t play this game with no regard for retaining the ball. From half-time we seemingly made a conscious decision to not contribute to the game. McNeil is the one player who can do something with a ball – and we took him off. If the opposition are playing in your third then something will likely give… might be a penalty, a deflection, something. They could push there because they knew nothing was coming back.
This result means little. No-one expects us to get anything there. You don’t judge a season on that match. But the same issues pervade – we always have less intent than we should have. It’s been true in most games this season.
And the ones that got away at Goodison against relegation rivals are the more telling. In those games, we had more intent than at Anfield – but far less than we should have had given the strength of the opposition.
Tim Welsh
5 Posted 21/10/2023 at 22:15:58
Absolutely agree, Jack.
Since Bryan Hamilton’s disallowed goal in 1977, I have witnessed more and more mystifying decisions benefit the RS, or compromise us. A sending-off for Rodwell… none for Kuyt… Hutchinson’s injury time winner… Alan Hansen’s handball – the list goes on… and on…
Have the media ever tried joining the dots? Never.
We should hand a video document to the authorities and tell them enough is enough.
A couple of weeks ago, Klopp threw his dummy out of his pram, and look at the refereeing since. They are running football, probably because ‘they sell the Premier League brand around the world.
I am sure that we are not the only team to suffer like this, which should only mean that all the other teams should collectively revolt against the hegemony of those clubs who are running our game.
If football had started like this in 1888 it would h
