Liverpool: No win for Liverpool on the longest day of the year, and an even longer wait maybe to clinch the title. When you’ve been waiting 30 years — and then had the coronation delayed by three months because of a pandemic — patience is expected.
The quietest of the 236 Merseyside derbies, with fans denied access to Goodison Park, produced no goals as Everton held Liverpool to a 0-0 draw on Sunday.
Liverpool is an unprecedented 23 points in front. But it is now no longer so certain that a victory over Crystal Palace on Wednesday at Anfield will seal the title. That scenario will require Burnley not losing to second-place defending champion Manchester City on Monday.
But with eight games remaining, Liverpool has considerable breathing space to end the drought and win the first domestic championship since 1990.
The visitors from a mile across Stanley Park were fortunate not to lose to Everton for the first time in a decade.
Carlo Ancelotti’s side nearly won it with 10 minutes to go when Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s shot was saved by Alisson and a follow-up from Tom Davies hit the post.
With no crowd, there was a tranquillity to an often fiercely contested derby, although Liverpool was also held scoreless on the previous two trips here.
The only football that fans could see at Goodison Park was a family kickabout against one of the stands before kickoff.
For once on derby day, the tightly packed rows of terraced housing had no fans trampling past doorsteps or scouring for parking spaces. Advice from public authorities was followed as fans largely stayed away to allow a game that police initially wanted to be played in another city to go ahead.
They didn’t miss much inside where a maximum 300 people were allowed including a small media contingent spread across small wooden seats usually occupied by fans in a stadium that first opened in the 19th century.
After a 103-day wait to return to league action for Liverpool, Joel Matip’s first-half header was the closest the leaders came to taking the lead.
At times, the dominant sound was a saxophonist’s melody filtering in from the outside on this cool evening as the Premier League was contested on the day of the summer solstice for the first time in a season that should have ended a month ago.
