Jurgen Klopp said Liverpool need a “crisis” at Arsenal and Manchester City to revive their Premier League title hopes after a 2-0 defeat in the Merseyside derby at Everton left his side three points off top spot with four games left to play.
Goals by Jarrad Branthwaite and Dominic Calvert-Lewin sealed Everton’s first home derby win since 2010 and all but ended fears of relegation by moving them eight points clear of the bottom three.
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The Everton supporters taunted their rivals by singing “You lost the league at Goodison Park” and Klopp, who will step down as Liverpool manager at the end of the season, said his side were now struggling to stay alive in the title race.
“I don’t know why I need to answer the question, but I know how it works,” Klopp said. “You can see the table. We need a crisis at Arsenal and City, so they need to not win games as we haven’t done tonight. Arsenal and City must have a very bad moment.
“I can only apologise for today to the people. We should have done better but we didn’t. Our performance wasn’t good enough and I am very disappointed.
“We defended the first goal three times and handed it to Everton on a plate and the second goal could probably have been defended better.
