Everton captain Phil Jagielka stepped up to save the day in stoppage time when his uncharacteristic 35-yard strike silenced Anfield to rescue a point despite a disappointing Everton display. The strike cancelled out Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard's 20-yard costless-kick which had put the home side into the lead just after the hour mark.
Typically, it was an incident-packed Merseyside Derby and in the 45 first minutes, the game saw cards, challenges, penalty shouts and plenty of passion and intensity, but ultimately both sides struggled to take advantage of their chances. The game trudged into half-time at 0-0, with Brendan Rodgers' side feeling rightly aggrieved after referee Martin Atkinson had denied a clear penalty after Gareth Barry handled inside the area early into the game.
And after a lull in play following the restart, Liverpool struck first through Gerrard. The skipper fired home when Mario Balotelli had been fouled by Leighton Baines outside the box and Tim Howard couldn't stop his powerful shot despite getting a full hand to it. The rest of the second half was fairly routine for the Reds, with the visitors' struggling to test Simon Mignolet and the game seemed all but over. That was until Jagielka's once-in-a-lifetime effort from distance perhaps undeservedly nicked the visitors a point in the 92nd minute.
The move came after substitute Tyias Browning rescued a loose ball and when Martin Skrtel failed to head the defender's cross clear, McGeady picked it up on the opposite flank and tried another cross, which Lovren rose to clear. Unfortunately, it fell perfectly for Jagielka to hit an unstoppable shot that curled away towards the top corner, kissed the bottom of the crossbar and rasped the net to rescue a point for Everton.
1. Liverpool need to be more clinical.
Without stating the obvious, the away side's late equaliser was a huge kick in the teeth for Brendan Rodgers and his side. Not only because it meant that they took just one point instead of three against their neighbours, but because they had a glut of chances throughout the game and simply failed to kill it off. Mario Balotelli in particular, was guilty of trying the spectacular, which ended a number of attacks prematurely. The Italian hit ten shots throughout the game, more than the entire Everton side, with just two hitting the target as opposed to opting to find a teammate and continue the home side's passing play. Overall though, no-one was potent enough for the Reds and they lacked the goalscoring talents of Sturridge. In total, they had 24 attempts - managing just eight on target but scored only one goal, and that came from a set-piece. They struggled to take advantage of their dominance and their chances, even though they weren't admittedly clear-cut. It's become a bit of a chronic problem, and they have struggled to fashion and finish opportunities all season long - Spurs away apart. It has been a complete contrast to how good they were in front of goal last season as they hit 101 goals as a result of the scintillating attacking partnership of Sturridge and Suárez. What's the answer? the return of potent English forward Sturridge will certainly add an extra dimension in the final third, as will the likes of Coutinho when they find form. Until then, it's a hugely concerning issue and it's costing them vital points.
2. Steven Gerrard can still step it up when it matters most.
On the big stage, the man to call on for Liverpool was always Steven Gerrard. The captain and midfielder could single-handedly change the game for the Reds and though he is no way near the energetic box-to-box game changer he used to be, the 34-year-old put in a thoroughly impressive shift. In the spirit of the derby, Gerrard rolled back the years to produce a performance that almost inspired the home side to the three points. Defensively and offensively, he was much improved on recent weeks and seemed to keen to address that after the goal, his celebration mocking those who criticised his poor displays versus West Ham United and Aston Villa. There were nonsensical calls for him to be dropped for Saturday's clash but Gerrard always ups his game for a derby, and did exactly that - netting his 10th goal versus the Blues, spraying his trademark passes across the pitch and breaking up a number of Everton attacks. He almost grabbed an assist earlier in the game too, with his excellent delivery almost allowing Adam Lallana to open the scoring had it not been for Howard's quick-thinking. Having been man-marked in the previous two games, Gerrard benefitted from increased costlessdom and the protection of the impresside Adam Lallana and Jordan Henderson ahead of him, and it was his best performance in a Liverpool shirt since the title run-in.
3. Balotelli needs more support.
Off-the-ball, Mario Balotelli put in a great shift - hustling and bustling Everton defenders, nicking possession and pressing and working hard to help out his team. On-the-ball however, it was a different story. Despite putting himself about, the Italian shot on sight too many times. Of his 10 shots, two were on target and eight of them were from distance. His ambitious efforts from range are a source of frustration from Liverpool fans and he has just one goal from his last 63 shots - 21 of which have come in his four Premier League games at the Reds. Whilst it is promising that he shows the self-confidence to try the shots from outside the box, it can be particularly annoying when other options could be on for the 24-year-old. However, the reason for his selfishness against Everton was simply due to a lack of movement ahead of him, and many times there simply wasn't many better alternatives for the striker. It was clear that Balotelli needs a partner, and for the most part has been much better with one. Two strikers seems to be the way forward, and a Sturridge-Balotelli partnership may be the answer to many problems throughout the course of the campaign.
4. Sakho's days could be numbered.
The big news story before the game was the absence of Mamadou Sakho in the matchday squad. Having come on against West Ham and added noticable stability at the back-line but making a high-profile error late on leading to Morgan Amalfitano's goal, Sakho was left out with Kolo Touré the centre-half on the bench instead. The Ivorian partnered the Frenchman in mid-week, as Liverpool faced Boro and was considerably better in defence but Sakho's omission still came as a shock, especially to the player himself. The 24-year-old centre-back stormed out of Anfield, and drove home to look the game instead of supporting his teammates from the stands. It didn't please supporters, and Sakho was forced to apologise on Twitter after the whole debacle but nevertheless, it's clear Brendan Rodgers doesn't rate Sakho too highly. He is arguably the most talented defender amongst the club's ranks, yet has struggled to cement a first-team place at Anfield. He has to settle for second-fiddle to the error prone Martin Skrtel, who scored five own goals last term and made a number of other critical errors to match. Still, Skrtel has clearly done something right in the eyes of the Northern Irishman, and it's very likely that Sakho could follow Agger on the way out of the door in exactly the same fashion as the Dane's departure.
5. 2013-14 is a world away already.
Okay, so we're only six games into the 2014-15 Premier League seasons and by no means is this campaign already a write off, but the mesmerising season that saw the Reds win 11 straight league games and narrowly miss out on the title is already a distant memory. Though it was only five or six months ago, it's clear already that this season that Rodgers won't be able to guide his side to the same heights as last season. Though there's plenty of games to be played, and plenty of points yet to be made up - Liverpool find themselves 12th, nine points off 1st place and three points off of 4th. It's not the best of starts, and they have three losses already after losing just five all year last season, and it means they're going to have to work very hard to recover their situation. Some of the new signings have struggled to recapture the form that tempted the Reds to sign them, and the verve and sheer blistering starts from the second-half of last season. It's not like they'll be impossible to regain, but after two straights defeats and a draw versus Everton that essentially felt like a defeat, it's an uphill climb Gerrard and co. from here on in.