Liverpool get what they deserve for not fixing problem that has ruined title chances
Inside the blue-hot cauldron of Goodison Park, Liverpool's Premier League title dreams all but melted.
And the worst thing about it all for those in the away end was how accurate their jubilant counterparts' summary of it all was as the clock ebbed into the final seconds.
"You lost the league at Goodison Park!" they roared with plenty of conviction. It was hard to argue otherwise, even if the ideal scenario of sending Jurgen Klopp into the sunset with a second winners' medal was always an outside bet given Arsenal's form and Manchester City's, well, everything.
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In the cold light of day, a more sober assessment of the campaign will reflect on progress, improvements and adjustments that have almost certainly brought about the return of Champions League football for next season, which will be contested by a new manager in the hotseat for the first time since October 2015.
But before those measured takes and sage opinions can begin to make sense of all this, Reds supporters will vent, they will fume and they will, with justification, argue just why their team were once more attempting to pull it out of the fire as the match entered the final throes.
Klopp is undoubtedly one of the greats from both a club history perspective and of the current operators across European football but his inability to fix a glaring, season-long problem of starting slowly has undermined their pursuit of glory.
A league-high of 27 points earned from losing positions has showcased the bags of mental resilience and quality Liverpool have when they are up against it but relying on that too much in recent weeks - against Crystal Palace at home and here, during this miserable 2-0 reverse, most notably - has left them entering the final four fixtures of Klopp's historic tenure now praying for the mother of all slip-ups from both Arsenal and City.
Goals from Jarrad Branthwaite and Dominic Calvert-Lewin condemned the manager to his first Merseyside derby defeat on this side of Stanley Park and the first in front of a paying crowd, who duly lapped up the events on the pitch with the sort of gusto that derby day demands.
That, perhaps, was the difference here; Everton played with the kind of fire and fury expected of a local skirmish while too many of Liverpool's players looked like they needed telling who the opposition were.
It didn't need to be blood and thunder, and the sort of tackles that risked red cards, but of all the tactical and technical shortcomings on the day, the biggest indictment was that the visitors didn't treat the occasion with the respect it deserved. For too many it seemed to be just another game at the tail end of a long, exhausting campaign. The irony now is those last quartet of fixtures might just be exactly that.
An Everton team who have won just three of the last 17 are able to count Klopp's title-chasers among them and at the exact wrong time of the season, the Reds have run out of ideas, energy and, for their manager at least, time.
A return to the top table of European football, which is always the first measure of success in the Anfield boardrooms, will be marked down as significant given the struggles of last term but this will hurt for now. And it has to, because Liverpool cannot shrug this one off as a poor day at the office; this defeat must fester and rankle in the dressing room.
For what is by now the umpteenth time this season, the Reds were slow out of the blocks and didn't start the game with the urgency that their general situation, the magnitude of the fixture or the atmosphere demanded. They were indebted to the offside lines early on after Alisson Becker had brought down Calvert-Lewin when clean through.
That should have been the alarm call that woke Klopp's side up but they hit the snooze button once more and were eventually punished when Jarrad Branthwaite bundled home after some penalty-box pinball. Defensively it was a shambles and the offside lines would not be in their favour this time.
Chances came and went through Darwin Nunez, Luis Diaz and Andy Robertson but Jordan Pickford was equal to them all as the Reds were once more unable to provide a clinical touch to presentable opportunities. How their inability to show a ruthless streak has cost them in recent weeks.
Nunez in particular was guilty. Too often the Uruguayan's touch was loose and when given the chance for his big moment in the first period, he opted to smash the ball at Pickford rather than apply the requisite finesse.
Eighteen goals this season more than suggests there is a player in there but Liverpool will continue to be hamstrung if the only finish the £64m striker has in the locker is the Hulk Smash. The No.9 was little more than a disinterested onlooker in the second half and would have been hooked had Cody Gakpo not missed the game due to his partner going into labour.
Nunez needs a strong finish to the campaign but it would be unfair to single just him out for criticism. Mohamed Salah looked like a pale imitation of the player who shone before that hamstring injury at the Africa Cup of Nations back in January while Ibrahima Konate was hauled off after enduring a nightmare of an evening up against Calvert-Lewin. Dominik Szoboszlai was once more off the pace and Alexis Mac Allister looks in need of a real rest.
Luis Diaz, the one performer to emerge with credit, rattled the inside of the post in the second period but they never truly looked like getting back into the game after Calvert-Lewin had steered home a second from a corner before the hour mark.
Liverpool might privately lament that their negotiations with Feyenoord over manager Arne Slot became public knowledge just hours before such a vital game but there can be no excuse making here.
The Reds got what they deserved and having done so much to delay the Jurgen Klopp Farewell Tour for so long, as they chased more glory to the Carabao Cup triumph, it now looks like it is the only show in town. No-one will hate that more than the man himself.