LIVERPOOL VS. EVERTON
| Saturday, September 20th |
Premier League | Anfield
12:30PM BST/7:30AM EST
Liverpool head into matchweek five the only undefeated side remaining in the Premier League. Despite that, the general consensus is that despite that perfect domestic record along with a victory over Atletico Madrid in their Champions League curtain raiser this week for good measure, Arne Slot’s Reds remain something of a work in progress. Mostly that’s down to their late winners. So many late winners.
Week one against Bournemouth? Won in the 88th minute by Federico Chiesa. Week two at Newcastle? Rio Ngumoha in tenth and final minute of stoppage time, aka 90+10 or the 100th minute. Week three, Arsenal, Dominik Szoboszlai in the 83rd—the earliest of the bunch! Burnley, Mo Salah, 95th. Then, in Europe against Atleti this week, Virgil van Dijk in the 92nd.
Those late goals and the lucky, lucky Liverpool narrative fixated on by fuming Arsenal fans, though, do rather help to obscure the fact that Liverpool really have deserved to win all those games. Aside perhaps from the Arsenal one, a low-incident affair where neither side managed to accumulate even a single full expected goal worth of chances. Liverpool have been getting the results they deserve so far—they’ve just been taking a little while to get to the result part.
Predicted Liverpool Lineup (4-3-3)
Alisson; Frimpong, Konaté, Van Dijk, Kerkez; Wirtz, Gravenberch, Mac Allister; Salah, Ekitike, Gakpo
Which brings us to Everton and a derby where at times it feels like late goals to secure a result, whatever result that happens to be, are the norm. And you don’t even have to go back to Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford flailing the ball off the crossbar and straight into the path of Divock Origi for the winner to find examples. Last year, Everton got an undeserved draw thanks to a 98th minute goal from James Tarkowski, which wasn’t grand from a Liverpool point of view when you get right down to it.
Everton have also started the season well under returned manager David Moyes, who has his Blues in sixth with wins over Wolves and Brighton along with a draw against Aston Villa. They were defeated on opening day by Leeds, but have looked solid ever since that matchweek one stumble and there should be no doubt going in that Moyes knows how to set up the Blues to frustrate the Reds in the derby.
The Managers Have Their Say
Arne Slot: “When we faced them last season they were in a good spell—and into this season again. I think they’ve made good signings and one is of course a player on loan worth £100m and doing so well for them, Jack Grealish. So, they are a good team.”
David Moyes: “At the moment, Liverpool are champions, probably favourites or second favourites for the Champions League. We’re not, we’re Everton who’ve had three or four difficult seasons and are just beginning to rebuild and trying to bridge that gap.”
The Officials
Referee: Darren England Assistants: Lee Betts, Scott Ledger Fourth Official: Bobby Madley VAR: John Brooks
If you haven’t done so already, we’d love if you signed up for an SB Nation account and join the community at TLO. We’ll bring you and your fellow Liverpool fans from around the world full coverage of every match from the 2025-26 season in the Premier League, Champiopns League, and domestic cups along getting you breaking news, insight and opinion, tactical discussion, and post-match reactions as the new season plays out. Hopefully you’ll join us for it!