Everton winger Anthony Gordon was ‘the best player on the pitch’ during Sunday’s Merseryside derby defeat to Premier League title-challengers Liverpool, former Tottenham midfielder Jamie O’Hara tells talkSPORT (25 April, 9am).
If the rest of Frank Lampard’s squad were capable of performing with the same determination, aggression and thrust as a 21-year-old academy graduate who’d only started ten league games before this season, well, let’s just say Toffees supporters could afford to sleep a little bit easier ahead of what promises to be a torturous, nail-biting conclusion to an apocalyptic campaign at Goodison Park.
Gordon, not for the first time, was Everton’s stand-out performer this weekend, performing exactly as you’d expect from a young man released by Liverpool as a kid.
If Gordon had a point to prove, then prove it he most certainly did.
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In fact, O’Hara believes there was not a single player on the Anfield pitch – including goal-scorer Andy Robertson and game-breaker Mo Salah – who could hold a candle to fleet-footed forward who left Trent Alexander-Arnold with a nasty case of twisted blood.
“I thought Anthony Gordon played really well,” says O’Hara.
The former Wolves man believes Gordon’s pace exposed one of the few flaws in Jurgen Klopp’s otherwise meticulous winning machine.
“I thought he was the best player on the pitch. And if you’re looking for a weak point in Liverpool’s side – and there aren’t many – that is definitely one of them. That ball over the top that Everton kept doing.
“They kept turning it in behind Trent Alexander-Arnold and Anthony Gordon gave him the absolute run-around. How he didn’t get a penalty I’ll never know.”
Everton boss Frank Lampard was similarly dumbfounded by referee Stuart Attwell’s refusal to award a second-half spot-kick after Gordon was bundled over by Joel Matip inside the Liverpool penalty area.
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“I think they both could have been penalties,” says Lampard, also pointing to an incident in which Gordon was yellow carded for an admittedly dramatic fall following risky a Naby Keita challenge.
“But you often don’t get them at Anfield.
The fact there’s contact and he gets booked is crazy. The second one was a foul (anywhere else) on the pitch. Sometimes you don’t get them here.”
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