Everton are back in Premier League action tonight - and it's some game to return to. The Blues take their nine-game unbeaten run to Anfield to take on their table-topping neighbours Liverpool (8pm kick-off).
The home of their biggest rivals has not been a happy hunting ground for Everton or their returning manager David Moyes. But they make the short trip across Stanley Park for the final time in confident mood and with relegation fears effectively banished.
Having not tasted a league defeat since Moyes' first game back in charge on January 15, the Blues are now 17 points clear of the bottom three.
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But they cannot afford to take their eye off the ball against a Liverpool side needing 16 points from a possible 27 to seal the title.
So how does Moyes line-up this evening? Our Everton writers have their say...
Joe Thomas
The big question is Vitalii Mykolenko. If he’s fit, he starts.
There are ways of covering him if he’s not 100% - Ashley Young tends to fair better on the left than the right, where he received a red card against Luis Diaz in this fixture last year. Another option would be moving Jarrad Branthwaite across, but the reshuffle that would require would surely cause too much change to trial in such a big game. So I really hope Mykolenko is fit, not least because he has fared relatively well against Mo Salah in recent encounters.
In the middle, my dilemma is between Abdoulaye Doucoure and James Garner. Idrissa Gueye is a shoo-in - he has been exceptional under David Moyes.
I would start Carlos Alcaraz in the more attacking midfield spot that Doucoure has often occupied. This is tough because Doucoure and Beto caused Liverpool’s defence a lot of problems at Goodison Park. But in recent matches, Everton have lacked any kind of control from the middle and Moyes has repeatedly moved Alcaraz inside to try and deal with that. I think his quality on the ball, and his bite, could give Alexis Mac Allister and those behind him a real test.
Garner is the more technically able of the options to sit alongside Gueye, but Doucoure's energy, physicality and ability to get under the Reds’ skin mean I would start him, albeit in a deeper role.
Dwight McNeil is not ready for tonight and Iliman Ndiaye isn’t fully fit, though will be considered for the squad. With neither fully available I would go Jesper Lindstrom on the right and Jack Harrison on the left.
Beto has missed chances in recent games and now has competition from Youssef Chermiti and Armando Broja. But he remains my forward for this. He was brilliant in the first game and also caused problems off the bench here last season.
My team (4-5-1): Pickford, O'Brien, Tarkowski, Branthwaite, Mykolenko; Lindstrom, Gueye, Alcaraz, Doucoure, Harrison; Beto.
Chris Beesley
After 131 years of combat against Liverpool, Everton will ‘cross Stanley Park’ for the final time tonight in the last derby before they decamp from L4 to their magnificent new stadium on the Mersey waterfront.
In the build-up to this historic fixture, Blues boss David Moyes was reminded that for all the relative successes of his first Goodison Park reign, when he steered the club to nine top-eight finishes, including a best-ever Premier League position of fourth in 2004/05, he has yet to taste victory at Anfield.
That’s not to say that the Glaswegian – who changed the city’s football lexicon forever on day one in his job first time around by dubbing Everton 'The People’s Club' – hasn’t been able to prove a thorn in the side of their more successful neighbours, though. It was after one particularly resolute display in 2007 when the Blues, who had triumphed 3-0 in the reverse fixture earlier that season, earned a goalless draw, that Rafael Benitez petulantly branded them a “small club.”
If Moyes is to end his trail of tears at Anfield though, perhaps Iliman Ndiaye, Everton’s magic man who left the last Merseyside derby crying, could prove the inspiration? Although the Blues snatched a deserved draw in dramatic circumstances with their last kick of the game in that fixture through captain James Tarkowski’s thunderbolt, they’ve been without Ndiaye ever since due to the Senegal international having suffered a knee injury.
Stripped of most of their creativity, Moyes’ men have nevertheless battled on to win 2-1 at Crystal Palace before recording four consecutive draws to extend their unbeaten run in the Premier League to nine matches. The bookmakers will understandably make Arne Slot’s table-toppers big favourites to end that sequence tonight. but having Ndiaye back can give Everton the X-Factor and enable him to showcase his talents in a manner he was denied six weeks ago, especially given that I’m going to toss in a googly by starting him on the right.
I know that Carlos Alcaraz flattered to deceive when being picked on the left against West Ham United, but I reckon the Argentinian offers a bit more derby bite that Jack Harrison and having him and Ndiaye on opposite flanks could give the Reds something to think about.
My team (4-2-3-1): Pickford; O’Brien, Tarkowski, Branthwaite, Mykolenko; Gueye, Garner; Ndiaye, Doucoure, Alcaraz; Beto.
