Can Everton peg back Liverpool's title charge?
While there’s no doubt this Merseyside Derby has huge ramifications at the top, and perhaps bottom, of the Premier League table – it remains, by some distance, my least favourite Derby in the UK.
While there is some needle between the two sides, the vast majority of their meetings are just…dire. The Jordan Pickford howler and Phil Jagielka wonderstrike aside, I struggle to recall anything interesting happening between these two within the last five years.
As you can tell, this doesn’t get the juices flowing.
However, the show goes on, and it seems like the gulf in class between Liverpool and Everton has never been larger. The Toffees are now just two points above the relegation zone, while Liverpool are eight points clear at the top of the league – having dropped points only once.
I still maintain Liverpool haven’t been as good as last year, and a few of their points have been a little fortuitous, but I’m still in no doubt that they’re currently the best side in the country.
Looking at the formbook, it’s obvious to see why Liverpool are such big favourites: Everton haven’t beaten Liverpool in any competition since 2010, while four of their last five meetings at Anfield have finished in the Reds’ favour.
Everton were agonisingly close to a really impressive point at Leicester over the weekend, but ultimately it was a fifth defeat in six away games for under-pressure Marco Silva, and it’s hard to make much of a case for Everton in this one, either.
2/5 does seem a tad skinny for Liverpool to win, but a home victory and under 3.5 goals is appealing.
Incredibly, over 3.5 goals have been scored in just five of the last THIRTY Merseyside Derbies (you can see why this fixture isn’t my favourite), and this’ll surely be no different – particularly considering only three sides have scored fewer than the Toffees in the league this season.
Under 10.5 corners also looks like a bet.
Four of the last five meetings between these two have seen under 11 corners, and Liverpool and Everton concede an average of 5.07 and 4.21 corners-per-game respectively.
It’ll be circumspect, as always, on Wednesday, so corners will perhaps be at a premium.
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