Liverpool vs Everton: Five things we learned as the spoils are shared in the Merseyside derby

Everton recovered after soaking up huge Liverpool pressure to claim a point from the first Merseyside derby of the season at Anfield.

Mohamed Salah scored a wonderfully struck opener shortly before half-time, but a late penalty denied Jurgen Klopp's side the victory, much to Liverpool's dismay.

Wayne Rooney was the man of the moment, scoring his first goal against Liverpool in an Everton shirt.

Here are five things we learned from the game.

As the summer transfer window drew to a close, many onlookers took one glance at Ronald Koeman's patchwork squad and scratched heads. The odd cluster of attacking options was what perplexed most, yet in Dominic Calvert-Lewin Everton seem to have found a viable solution to who should lead their line. With each passing week he appears more than merely a youngster learning his trade and the 20-year-old has begun to amass goals and assists to prove his worth. At Anfield it was his desire to give chase which drew Dejan Lovren to concede the decisive penalty, from which Rooney equalised. The 20-year-old striker's fall was a little over-dramatic, perhaps, but it was his intelligence to get between defender and ball which was both crucial and impressive.

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Everton under Sam Allardyce are going to be a pretty unattractive proposition, especially if the opening 45 minutes here was anything to go by. That may not come as a shock but the manner in which they camped in, giving up 80% possession to their fiercest rivals with prime creators Wayne Rooney and Gylfi Sigurdsson doing shuttle runs up and down each wing suggests the manager will stop at nothing in order to achieve his main priority: clean sheets.

The clean sheet didn't come off on this occasion, of course, but they were able to emerge with a point regardless and there have been plenty of signs in Allardyce's start at Goodison to suggest his methods are getting through. It is a strategy which will probably ensure a far more comfortable season, away from the relegation trouble which seemed a threat not so long ago. It just won't always be pretty to watch.

In a couple of months’ time, when conversation begins to turn to who has been the player of the season, it will be hard to look beyond Manchester City on the evidence of what we have seen so far, but Mohamed Salah must be part of discussion. It is not only his rapidly rising goal tally, which he added to at Anfield with a show of strength and deft touch before sending the ball arcing beautifully into the far corner. He also works hard, can dribble dangerously and can be creative in tandem with his team-mates. What he illustrated against Everton were three further things: a reminder that he has a tendency for those up-off-your-seat goals; proof that he can deliver in big games at crucial moments, not just the play-time routs; and that he can do it anywhere, even on a snowy afternoon on Merseyside.

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There was a clip of Andrew Robertson in the warm-up before his Liverpool debut in August which felt quite poignant. His stood alone with a ball looking quite lost while his team-mates knocked passes to each other in twos and threes around him. Despite a promising performance he has played only sporadically since, explained by Jurgen Klopp as a necessary period to adapt to his heavy metal footballing style. Presumably that period is now over as Klopp started the wing-back in the derby and he was a regular threat, pinning back Everton’s right winger in the first half, Rooney, and almost creating a goal as he got in behind the Everton captain in the 12th minute, while he unfurled a delicious cross from which Roberto Firmino almost grabbed the winner in the final stages. Alberto Moreno has impressed this season but Robertson has the chance to stake a permanent claim for the role.