Everton out of luck as Pepe Reina rescues Liverpool

As so often in life, the weather matched the mood on the blue half of Merseyside yesterday.

The grey skies and rain summed up perfectly how Evertonians felt as they trudged home disconsolately from Goodison Park.

"Going down," sang the gleeful Reds fans, no doubt already looking forward to ribbing their Blue mates at work or down the pub.

The Blues have slipped to 16th - just three points above the drop zone - and a season which promised so much is turning into the grim relegation struggle David Moyes predicted.

But there is a silver lining to this dark cloud over Goodison and Evertonians should not pick up the phone to the Samaritans just yet.

There were positives to be gleaned from this painful defeat, which suggest they will turn the corner.

They were the better team and if they continue to play as well, they will win more games than they will lose.

They had the best outfield player on the park in Steven Pienaar and the South African's return from a calf injury could not be better timed.

He tied Emiliano Insua and Fabio Aurelio in such knots that the South American pair are probably still trying to unravel themselves.

Despite Pienaar's magic, it just wasn't Everton's day and they could have played till bedtime and still not scored.

Diniyar Bilyaletdinov will not miss as big a sitter as he did in the first half when, with the goal at his mercy, he sliced his shot wide.

Nor will Pepe Reina make a better save than the world-class double stop he produced to deny Tim Cahill and Marouane Fellaini.

And to cap it all, of course, they went behind to a shot that was going wide until Yobo’s foot sent it past his own keeper.

That stunning save turned the game Liverpool's way and if Everton had scored, they would have had the momentum to go on and snatch a winner.

In that moment, the Blues knew they were beaten and Liverpool bagged a second in the dying minutes to give the scoreline a somewhat flattering look.

Everton fans got a rare sight of Phil Jagielka when he made a half-time cheque presentation on the pitch and no team outside the top two could cope with the long-term loss of the likes of him, Phil Neville, Mikel Arteta.

They will undoubtedly improve Everton when they return so Blues fans need not feel as depressed as a turkey at this time of year.