For Liverpool there can be no better way to win a Merseyside derby which Everton did not deserve to lose

Blue flares were hurled onto the pitch from the away end. The manner of this defeat alone for Everton was excruciating but compounded by the fact it extends the club’s winless run at Anfield into a 20th year

Jurgen Klopp wildly celebrated Liverpool’s victory (Reuters)

There are moments in Merseyside derbies where time feels infinite, the noise of the stadium is sucked from the atmosphere and only the sound of wailing babies not really invested in the event can be received. The sensation can be explained by tension, the anticipation of what might happen and the weight of the consequences.

They arrive like a quick-fire sequence of snapshots. Here, scene one involved an image of Bernard in space; scene two was Theo Walcott cushioning his header towards the onrushing Andre Gomes. Gomes was dead centre of goal and a couple of yards out; scene three would surely be images of Everton’s players celebrating, even though Gomes’s eyes were shut at the point of contact with the ball…

Instead, it was Alisson Becker wearing yellow and appearing like Bananaman to save ridiculously with the upper part of his arm. Scene four became Joe Gomez making an equally impossible goal-line clearance after the rebound hit Gomes somewhere on the head, the neck or the chest. Scene five involved Gylfi Sigurdsson sprawled on the turf in front of the Kop with an old lady sitting at the front of the famous stand open mouthed probably questioning how the last eight seconds had ended like this.

At the same end, three minutes remained when the second of those moments arrived: the clatter of cameras taking pictures of Trent Alexander-Arnold whipping in the corner; Virgil van Dijk meeting the delivery with a header; Divock Origi – on as a substitute for his first league appearance of the season – booting a shot onto the crossbar. The noise had risen by the time Daniel Sturridge’s subsequent volley stuck the lower arm of Sigurdsson. It could have been a penalty. Everton had escaped. But not for long.

Then, separately, high into the night sky van Dijk’s awkward volley went, a volley of frustration that summed up Liverpool’s general awkwardness. Jordan Pickford did not need to touch the ball. It was halfway over the line, destined to hit the cross bar then arrive on the top of the net. For some reason, he tried to catch it. Dreadfully for him, it rolled, dropped and fell to Origi and with that he became the recipient of a match winning goal. Six minutes of injury time had already been played. There can be no better way to win a derby you do not deserve to win. There can be no worse way to lose a derby you do not deserve to lose.

Divock Origi hits the crossbar minutes before his winning moment (EPA)

Jurgen Klopp was sprinting now, 30 – maybe 40 yards onto the pitch, like he was the hero in Baywatch, ready to meet the coolness of the wave. He wanted to congratulate Alisson for taking a short free-kick in those seconds before it was curved into the box for van Dijk. The Brazilian goalkeeper had changed the angle but Everton’s defeat was entirely Pickford’s – the sort so bad, thoughts of Loris Karius and Kiev came drifting back into view.

Blue flares were hurled onto the pitch from the away end. The manner of this defeat alone for Everton was excruciating but compounded by the fact it extends the club’s winless run at Anfield into a 20th year.

There are all sorts of ways when viewing Everton’s record at this ground. Their last victory had been in 1999 or 7,007 days ago. During that period, more than 200 players have represented them in derbies and none of them have scored a winning goal. And yet, to reduce Liverpool’s dominance over Everton to a 19-year period overlooked a historical pattern in existence since 1962, the year Liverpool became a First Division club again under Bill Shankly. In 56 seasons, Everton had won on this ground just seven times and three of them were in the 1980s, the club’s most recent era of success.

There had been an unusual narrative before this game, with it seeming like Liverpool were the team on the back-foot and Everton confidently pursuing them. It had been forgotten that Everton took with them to Anfield just one away victory this season. It felt like it had been forgotten that this is a venue where Liverpool have not lost in the league across 19 months, a place indeed where they have conceded just twice since February.

Had Everton been able to hold out, their dubious record would have continued nevertheless but at least there would have been something positive to cling onto.

There could be sympathy for Marco Silva, who stood motionless staring at the floor as Klopp surged past him in the frenzy of victory. Silva’s team had performed as well as any since the David Moyes era. It is impossible to say whether Gomes’s miss was defining, though it was certainly crucial. Origi’s intervention means Silva’s players will now carry scars, like those from the past did for so long. Six of them were making their Merseyside derby debuts – it had been an opportunity to shift a mentality. So often, when it has seemed like things are not going Everton’s way in this fixture, they have not. The fashion of this defeat will only amplify that feeling.