Salah shines again

Amid all the mayhem and confusion, one man remained calm under pressure. And it provided further evidence as to why Mohamed Salah is arguably the greatest in the world right now.

The best players know how to make the time. Salah managed that during the first half when, with Everton bouncing on the back of Beto’s opener, he dropped away from his marker Vitalli Mykolenko and delivered a perfect cross from which Alexis Mac Allister – Liverpool’s stellar performer – improvised a header to equaliser.

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It made Salah the first player in Premier League history to be directly involved in 22 goals on the road in a single season, with nine assists to go with his 13 goals to that point.

But the Egyptian wasn’t finished there. And when, on 73 minutes, a shot from substitute Curtis Jones was deflected into his path at the far post, Salah took a moment before finding the spot between Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford and the retreating defenders on the line to score.

Salah now has 27 goals for the campaign – 22 coming in the Premier League – with 19 assists. All in just 35 appearances.

While Cody Gakpo had a rare struggle on the left and Luis Diaz was lost among the man-mountains of the Everton backline until shifting to the wing – from where he initiated the second goal – Salah was again Liverpool’s most consistently dangerous forward. Now, about that new contract...

Bradley learns hard way

It was a fast-track trademark of the Liverpool boss. While Arne Slot was experiencing the Merseyside derby for the first time, he created a little bit of history before a ball had even been kicked.

By keeping the fit-again Trent Alexander-Arnold in reserve on the bench, the Reds fielded for the first time a starting line-up in a top-flight game without a single English player.

Conor Bradley was therefore given a first outing against Everton at right-back. And this was a tough initiation in the fixture, Bradley caught up in the emotion of the occasion at times and substituted to prevent himself being sent off as the Everton players and crowd bayed for a second yellow card after one foul challenge.

The 21-year-old, though, will learn from the experience. And a positive for Liverpool came in the performance of his replacement, Alexander-Arnold back after missing the last two games with a muscle problem. It was telling the Reds improved almost instantly, particularly with their use of the ball and quality of delivery into and from the final third.

Bradley is a hugely promising apprentice but Alexander-Arnold remains the master. Well, until the end of the season at least.

Konate’s redemption

Barely 15 minutes in and already Ibrahima Konate was in danger of reliving his Goodison nightmare.

Having been hooked during the second half of Liverpool’s 2-0 defeat here last April, Konate began in hesitant fashion as Everton, with Beto to the fore, made life awkward from the off.

But the longer the game progressed, the more Konate began to get to grips with the Everton forward, dominating his opponent in the second half. Well, that is until the final seconds when the nudge from Beto on Konate so rankled Liverpool.

Instead, it was skipper Virgil van Dijk who had the more difficult evening up against the awkward Blues man.

And there will be disappointment at the collective dozing that allowed Beto to capitalise from a quickly-taken free-kick to open the scoring, along with frustration this was another game where goalkeeper Alisson Becker had little to do other than pick the ball out of the net.