Liverpool's hopes of winning the Premier League title took a hammer blow after it was beaten 2-0 in the Merseyside derby at Goodison Park.

The Reds were well below their best and Everton made them pay, with goals from Jarrad Branthwaite and Dominic Calvert-Lewin.

The defeat leaves Liverpool three points off Arsenal with four games to go, with the league leaders also boating a far superior goal difference.



Manchester City has two games in hand and can leapfrog Liverpool by beating Brighton on Thursday.

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Jürgen Klopp apologized to Liverpool's supporters after the final whistle as his side failed to handle Everton's physical threat.

He will hope his side can dust themselves down ahead of the trip to West Ham on Saturday.

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Here is how the rest of the UK media reacted to the Goodison Park defeat, in what was Klopp's final derby in charge of Liverpool.

It was a common story though as familiar issues reared their heads again for the Reds.

Paul Joyce - The Times

"The Premier League leaders Arsenal, three points ahead and with a far healthier goal difference, and Manchester City, who has games in hand, will not falter to the extent Liverpool now need and the unpalatable, inescapable truth is that its challenge has ended with little more than a whimper.

"Yet this was Everton’s night.

It did not look like championship contenders, let alone champions-in-waiting.

"Nor did it have the muscle or wisdom to deal with a derby tussle which put one in mind of those in the 80s and 90s, when the right to play was as significant as the ability to do so.

"Where and when it mattered, Everton demonstrated both, and once Jarrad Branthwaite pounced to beat Alisson from close range, Liverpool lacked the class and nous to recover."

Paul Gorst - Liverpool ECHO

"In the cold light of day, a more sober assessment of the campaign will reflect on progress, improvements and adjustments that have almost certainly brought about the return of Champions League football for next season, which will be contested by a new manager in the hot seat for the first time since October 2015," he scribes.

"But before those measured takes and sage opinions can begin to make sense of all this, Reds supporters will vent, they will fume and they will, with justification, argue just why their team were once more attempting to pull it out of the fire as the match entered the final throes.

"Klopp is undoubtedly one of the greats from both a club history perspective and of the current operators across European football but his inability to fix a glaring, season-long problem of starting slowly has undermined their pursuit of glory."


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