No mercy in Merseyside derby

Liverpoolrsquos Diogo Jota scored the goal that settled the Merseyside derby on Wednesday and kept the Redsrsquo Premier League title challenge well on trackThe Portugal internationalrsquos 57th minute strike sealed a 10 win at Anfield and restored Liverpoolrsquos 12point lead over Arsenal at the top of the tableWith just eight games remaining this season this was one of the biggest hurdles standing in the way of a recordequalling 20th English title for Arne Slotrsquos team and Evertonrsquos defence made sure their biggest rivals worked hard for itAlso ReadGrealish dedicates goal to late brother as City beat LeicesterEventually it was Jota who came up with the decisive moment when he twisted his way through the box and lashed a shot past Everton goalkeeper Jordan PickfordldquoIt was a hardfought match definitely but that was no surprise We are chasing down the best possible season we can have and Everton showed today again how difficult it is to win a football game in the Premier Leaguerdquo Slot saidEvertonrsquos James Tarkowski left escapes a red card despite a dangerous tackle on Alexis Mac AllisterldquoWe know that wersquore going to face eight very tough challenges but as long as the players give as much as they did today and when we play home games the fans give us as much as they did today we are in a very good position to win the titlerdquo he addedEverton were lucky not to have had defender James Tarkowski sent off for a dangerous high tackle on Alexis Mac Allister early in the match Despite consulting with the Video Assistant Referee VAR the foul only merited a yellow card However the Premier League match officials body PGMOL later admitted that it was a red card offenceThe refereersquos ingame decision even befuddled Evertonrsquos own manager David Moyes who admitted Tarkowski was lucky to see out the rest of the game ldquoWe were lucky we didnrsquot get a red It looked a high onerdquo said MoyesThey went on to give Liverpool a mighty scare twice in the first half when striker Beto had a goal ruled out for offside and later struck the post after racing clearBut Liverpoolrsquos players held their nerve and took advantage through Jotarsquos first goal in his last 11 games Victory means Liverpool need just 13 more points to be confirmed championThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever