VIDEO. Visibly disappointed Jurgen Klopp sees title evaporate in derby defeat against Everton: “We were just not good enough”

After title rival Arsenal’s convincing victory against Chelsea (5-0), Jurgen Klopp’s men knew what they had to do: win. Sean Dyche’s Toffees were still in the midst of a relegation battle and were playing with the knife between their teeth. That resulted in an absolute fumble goal by Jarrad Branthwaite (27.) in minute 27. After the break, the visitors left Dominic Calvert-Lewin (55.) all alone on a corner and you shouldn’t give the English striker something like that: 2-0. Amadou Onana was allowed to triumph for fifteen minutes.

Afterwards, captain Virgil van Dijk was very disappointed in his teammates. “I’m disappointed in so many ways. Everyone really needs to look in the mirror and evaluate their own performance. They have to ask themselves whether they really gave it their all and whether they really want to become champions. Of course we still have a few games left and we will continue to fight for it, but to be honest we have no chance of winning the title if we play like today. You simply have to do much better against a team like Everton, which is fighting relegation.”

Outgoing coach Jürgen Klopp also showed a remarkably resigned impression after the defeat. “I am of course disappointed. There were a lot of things wrong and we allowed Everton to turn it into a match exactly the way they wanted it. They score two goals from stationary phases, the first was even a pinball goal. On our side we created many chances, which we were unable to capitalize on. Especially in the first half we should have scored and in the second half we were in a hurry and were not precise enough. With the second goal we knew exactly that the ball would end up there, but we did not defend carefully enough. Everton were strong and everything went their way, but okay. We had the ball, they got stagnant phases. But we just have to admit that we weren’t good enough.

Man, you beat the bottom of Sheffield

At the same time, Manchester United recorded a hard-fought victory against bottom-of-the-table Sheffield United (4-2). The Mancunians fell behind twice after goals from Jayden Bogle (35.) and Ben Brereton Diaz (50.), but more than erased this through Harry Maguire (42.), Bruno Fernandes (61. and 81.) and Rasmus Höjlund (85.).

Four matchdays from the end, Liverpool has 74 points in second place, three less than leader Arsenal (77 points). Number three Manchester City has 73, but still has two games in hand. Newcastle (50 pts) saw its defeat at Crystal Palace (2-0) over Man U (53 pts) to sixth place.

At the bottom, Everton has definitively rid itself of the relegation specter. Onana and co. Sixteenth have 33 points, eight more than eighteenth Luton Town.