Klopp: Last-gasp win over Everton sparked Liverpool title challenge

To set the tone for what is coming, we must return to December 2 and remind ourselves of the circumstances.

Liverpool were second in the Premier League, five points behind Manchester City, and had been beaten by Paris Saint-Germain four days earlier. This team, to use one of Jurgen Klopp's phrases, was not flying.

Everton, by contrast, had lost only one of their previous seven and were confident they could win at Anfield for the first time since September 1999 - but in the sixth minute of added time, Virgil van Dijk sliced a volley high, Jordan Pickford lost the ball's flight and Divock Origi stooped to conquer.

Anfield has witnessed many big goals under Klopp but none have generated such frenzy, with the German fined for racing on to the pitch to celebrate.

'I didn't see a big, big difference in the teams when I managed my first derby,' said Everton manager Marco Silva. 'What I felt was a special match for both teams. They celebrated that lucky goal, lucky moment they had in the last seconds of the match like it was a final of a World Cup. I didn't see a big difference.'

There has been a difference since then, however. The victory was the catalyst for a run of eight wins and Liverpool are now in control of the title race. Everton, meanwhile, fell off a cliff to such an extent that Silva's position has come under pressure.

'Can a goal change a season? I am not sure,' said Klopp. 'But changing the moment? For sure. It changed the mood, the confidence, of course. It was a very important goal. 100 per cent. That day and the games afterwards, it was unbelievable what the boys did. It created all our situations, really.'

A beauty of football, though, is that it provides those who lose games in such galling fashion the chance to gain retribution.

Klopp might think he knows what tumult awaits at Goodison Park but, really, he cannot truly appreciate it.

This is Liverpool's most important derby since April 2001, when they were chasing a cup treble and a place in the Champions League, but for Everton it is an opportunity to take down a team who have caused them such misery.

Everton have not beaten Liverpool since October 2010 and to end the famine now, aside from the damage it would do to Klopp's title bid, would buy Silva time.

'When you look to the numbers and all the history since 2010, it always looks like a big chance for us to change the history,' said Silva. 'The numbers are there but you can change them. It is a special match and a chance for three points: it is everything we want.'

The numbers at Goodison, though, have not added up. In their last seven home derbies, Everton have been in front for just seven minutes — in November 2013 in a gripping contest that finished 3-3. It is a dispiriting statistic that requires immediate attention.

Klopp noted: 'It is much easier to motivate them and say, 'Come on boys, it's time. It's our moment'. We are on the other side. We respect them a lot as a football team. I looked at a possible line-up and it is real quality. That is how we have to deal with it.'

There is more to dealing with it, however, than just taking care of the 11 men in front of them. If Old Trafford was hostile last weekend, Goodison will be in full bear-pit mode: raucous and intimidating.

'I like that, to be fair,' said Van Dijk, with a glint in his eye. 'It is always something that motivates you even more and it is a great game to play in. It's the derby and it's special, but we want to show our quality, win the game, hopefully with good football. But if not? We are going to fight for it.'