Liverpool racked up a comfortable Merseyside derby win over Everton.
Mohamed Salah opened the scoring midway through the first half as he met Darwin Nunez’s lay-off after a counter attack to fire past Jordan Pickford.
Jurgen Klopp’s side doubled their lead when Cody Gakpo opened his account for the club by meeting Trent Alexander-Arnold’s cutback to the far post.
Here were the key talking points from Anfield:
Blues’ board excuses just don’t add up
The Anfield directors’ box witnessed a rare sight moments before kick-off.
Everton’s board had not been seen since allegations of targeted aggression were made public shortly before last month’s home defeat to Southampton.
For that game and last weekend’s win over Arsenal, Bill Kenwright, Denise Barrett-Baxendale and Graeme Sharp chose to stay firmly out of sight.
On both occasions, their seats at Goodison Park remained unoccupied.
But the Blues’ chairman, CEO and non-executive director took up position across Stanley Park to watch Sean Dyche’s side for the first time in-person.
Something clearly does not add up when those same executives deemed it unsafe to attend Goodison but seemingly not a game in the same postcode.
Relations between the club’s under-fire hierarchy and Evertonians are already at critical stage and increasingly appears to have reached a point of no return.
Their Anfield visit did little to help smooth over that ongoing stand-off and, if anything, further exacerbated supporters’ frustrations at their recent antics.
Reds restore their swagger in seconds
Historically, Merseyside derbies have often been decided by seminal moments; be it a last-minute winner, a sending-off or memorable goal.
The 13 seconds between James Tarkowski’s header crashing back off the woodwork and Mohamed Salah opening the scoring is up there with them.
Before the Everton defender met Alex Iwobi’s cross, this game had been finely poised but that swift transition firmly shifted the balance of power.
Liverpool’s counter-attack which led to the Egyptian’s first goal on home soil since November appeared to unlock something which been sorely lacking.
In under a quarter of a minute, they went from under siege to swaggering.
From thereon Jurgen Klopp’s side carved open their visitors at will, with left-back Vitalii Mykolenko often the target of Salah and Darwin Nunez’s torment.
The Reds rediscovered a time-honoured trait at the best possible moment in an ailing season to restore confidence and down their struggling neighbours.
Sustaining it in the next week alone will be a difficult ask, with a trip to high-flying Newcastle and a Champions League clash with Real Madrid up ahead.
Still, Anfield’s first step of recovery had to start somewhere.
Moshiri’s empty pledge is damning Dyche
Last month, Farhad Moshiri attempted to allay Everton fans’ well-founded concerns about recruitment by insisting, ‘If we need a striker, we’ll get one’.
Yet the majority shareholder’s pledge proved to be hollow words with no marksmen breezing through the doors during the January transfer window.
Moshiri’s empty promise was brought to bear as Dyche handed Ellis Simms a first start since December 2021 due to Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s absence.
Borne of necessity rather than luxury, the 22-year-old struggled to make any meaningful impact as he ploughed a lone furrow against Liverpool’s defence.
Depending on a player who had amassed just 15 minutes since being recalled from a season-long loan at Sunderland was always likely to pan out this way.
Calvert-Lewin’s susceptibility to injury has been Goodison’s worst-kept secret for the best part of 18 months, making a suitable back-up an urgent priority.
That Everton failed to source one in successive transfer windows was a true dereliction of duty and one which is in danger of condemning their manager.
Fighting a relegation battle is difficult enough with a full compliment squad but it’s near-impossible with one hand metaphorically tied behind your back.