Everton v Liverpool: Premier League – live

Key events41m agoTeams!2h agoPreambleDaniel HarrisSun 19 Apr 2026 08.44 EDTFirst published on Sun 19 Apr 2026 07.02 EDTShareShow key events onlyPlease turn on JavaScript to use this featureKey events41m agoTeams!2h agoPreambleShow key events onlyPlease turn on JavaScript to use this feature1m ago08.43 EDT“The CL spot is relatively safe,” reckons Dave Estherby. “Chelsea are going backwards under that work experience lad they’ve got ‘in charge’ and I can’t see Brentford/Brighton doing much more this season (Bournemouth might though).

As for Slot, he CAN’T lose this one or he’s bang in trouble - the whole side looks knackered and pasy it, a big clear-out in the summer is needed (still be stuck with Isak and Wirtz though…)

Also I can’t believe the best player of the last few weeks isn’t starting, then again I absolutely can.”

Yup, I think Slot’s been too cautious in his deployment of Ngumoha – not just today but through the season. Attackers can affect games when they’re young, the side needs an injection of youthful fearlessness and conviction, and Gakpo clearly isn’t it.

5m ago08.39 EDTUltimately, Liverpool got away with it last year – they weren’t a great side but Salah had a legendary half-season – and perhaps there wasn’t enough internal recognition of that reality. They felt the midfielders and centre-backs who delivered the title were adequate, but they patently were not.

7m ago08.38 EDT“Fully agree you can’t say Harrison Reed’s goal for Fulham was ‘bad luck’ for Liverpool,” writes Joshua Keeling. “I think a deflection could be called bad luck, a 30-yard screamer can’t be. The problem for Liverpool is not luck, it’s that they spent £450m on a load of players who don’t fit together, seemingly with no real plan for how they wanted to play, and left themselves short in key areas at centre-back and right-back. Poor recruitment is poor recruitment, it is not bad luck.”

And it follows what is, for my money, the best running of signings in football history: Mane, Salah, Henderson, Alisson, Van Dijk, Firmino, Robertson, Wijnaldum, Fabinho and so on. Furthermore, in refreshing their attack, they bought two centre-forwards but replaced neither Salah or Luis Diaz – and I’d also have addressed the middle of midfield.

15m ago08.29 EDTEmail! "“Slot has had a disastrous season in that he’s shown no obvious ability to adapt or inspire in the face of adversity,” reckons Niall Mullen. “That said, the adversity he’s had to deal with includes the death of Diogo Jota as well as injuries to players including a torn ACL, a broken leg, season-ending knee ligament damage, and an Achilles tendon rupture. I’m not sure I have any point other than perhaps Slot, while maybe deserving to be replaced as head coach, should probably be exempt from the banterpocalypse.”

It’s a thin line, isn’t it? And I agree with your analysis: there are plenty of factors beyond Slot’s control, but it’s hard to see where the positive influence is, starting with the summer business and extending to the lack of physicality, concentration, organisation and zest.

17m ago08.27 EDTUp front, meantime, Alexander Isak continues. In the extended absence of Hugo Ekitike – and achilles ruptures are among the worst for any sportsperson, just ask Neil Webb – Slot wants a reference point, rather than using, say Gakpo through the middle to get Ngumoha in. I’d have gone with the latter and left out the former myself, but either way, he needs Isak to perform.

20m ago08.24 EDTOtherwise, Florian Wirtz is again given a chance to assert and establish – the numbers and profiles behind him, more defensively minded, offer him yet some ballast, but does he have the necessary speed of thought and play, along with the required combativeness, to make a difference?

22m ago08.22 EDTThe problem he has is that he replaced two full-backs who were better in attack than defence, with … two full-backs who are better in attack than defence. Essentially, he doesn’t have a combination that works, so has prioritised solidity and experience here, the new lads excluded. That means Dominic Szoboszlai again plays at the back, which means Liverpool must do without their best midfielder in the centre of the pitch; I guess the plan might be for him to invert, but otherwise Slot will hope that the ball-carrying and tenacity of Curtis Jones compensate.

26m ago08.19 EDTSo, why has Slot made those alterations?

31m ago08.13 EDTAnyway, back to the teams, Everton are unchanged following their 2-2 draw at Brentford, while Liverpool show four changes to the side that lost to PSG, Andy Robertson, Curtis Jones, Mohamed Salah and Cody Gakpo coming in for Jeremie Frimpong, Milos Kerkez, Alexis Mac Allister and Hugo Ekitike.

34m ago08.10 EDTMake up your own minds:

35m ago08.09 EDTJamie Carragher then notes the “bad luck”, citing Harrison Reed’s brilliant equaliser at Fulham; I’m not sure we’re aligned on what that means, because I watched that and saw skill Liverpool failed to defend.

38m ago08.07 EDTWe’ll look at those more closely in a few, but Slot is on Sky explaining that Rio Ngumoha has been left out because you need to be cognisant of Everton’s threat at set-pieces and how they like to play more generally. He also says it’s good to have agile players, able to take on opponents one on one, available to bring on late.

He bemoans injury and bad luck for a bit too, though is less loquacious on any responsibility that might be his.

41m ago08.04 EDTTeams!Everton (4-2-3-1): Pickford; O’Brien, Tarkowski, Branthwaite, Mykolenko; Gueye, Garner; McNeil, Dewsbury-Hall, Ndiaye; Beto. Subs: Travers, Patterson, Keane, Barry, George, Dibling, Alcaraz, Rohl, Iroegbunam.

Liverpool (4-2-3-1): Mamardashvili; Szoboszlai, Konate, Van Dijk, Robertson; Gravenberch, Jones; Salah, Wirtz, Gakpo; Isak. Subs: Woodman, Pecsi, Kerkez, Mac Allister, Chiesa, Frimpong, Nyoni, Ngumoha.

Referee: Chris Kavanagh (Ashton-under-Lyne)

46m ago07.58 EDTAlso going on for you:

2h ago07.02 EDTPreambleBaking cookies or making stock with the lid off; visiting the smallest room and making use of all the rooms; we each have ways of turning a house into a home. Generally speaking, though, we tend to refrain from inviting round hated former neighbours in the hope of smashing them up in front of a worldwide audience; good old football.

Of course, in such context, such behaviour makes perfect sense: the thing that most firmly anchors us to a place is shared experience. Except those can be both positive and negative and so far, Everton’s record in their new digs is spotty – they’re 14th in the home table – as it is in home derbies – they’ve won one since October 2010 and just four in the league this century. Which is to say you can invite the hated former neighbours, but there’s no guarantee they won’t wreck the gaff and you with it.

And there’s more riding on this conflict than base hatred, delicious and affirming, deliciously affirming and affirmingly delicious though it is: Liverpool sit fourth in the league table and Everton 10th, but between the gap between the two is a mere five points. Consequently, the Champions League is in the grasp of the former but still attainable for the latter, with the Europa and Conference similarly in play – likewise Arne Slot’s job, a state of affairs that seemed impossible just less than a year ago when he was dancing about as a champion.

But though the vibe in a home is a facility of the people in it, it quickly becomes clutter. Then if, on top of that, you toss in a load of posh but unnecessary furniture while ignoring the aspects of it which require urgent attention, it shouldn’t be all that surprising when a mess doth ensue. Whether Slot is permitted to tidy it depends a lot on what happens this afternoon.

Kick-off: 2pm BST