Will Everton finally end their Anfield jinx in Saturday's derby

After a sobering 3-1 defeat against Manchester City on Wednesday night against the likely new league champions, Everton face another tough match as they take their shortest journey for an away game a trip across Stanley Park to take on the defending champions Liverpool at Anfield on Saturday.

It’s been 22 years since Everton last won at that ground with a Kevin Campbell goal in a 1-0 win. I remember watching the match and I would never have imagined that night we’d still be waiting for another win there.

Since then the Toffees have rarely ever looked like getting anything at a ground which the Blues actually built and where they won their first ever league title in1891. So can this Toffees team finally end the Blues dreadful Anfield jinx?

Well if the past two matches are anything to go by, the answer is almost certainly not. While the loss against City was almost inevitable given how good a side they are, the previous defeat to Fulham was another example of the infuriating erraticism of this Everton team.

The lack of consistency and fight that the Toffees showed against the Cottagers was the more depressing and worrying. Losing to the League champions-elect is one thing, but to meekly surrender to a struggling side fighting relegation, is quite another.

There are two things that might give a sliver of hope to Evertonians who are probably like me, dreading this match again.

First of all it’s not at Goodison Park! If a year ago we had said this it would have seemed a crazy thing to utter. After all twelve months or so ago Everton were extremely strong at the grand old lady, but terrible away.

Now the posiiton is almost totally reversed. Remarkably the Blues are unbeaten away since a 2-1 defeat at Newcastle United way back on the 1st of November. In contrast the Toffees have lost four of their last five home Premier League matches and their last home victory was against Arsenal in December.

The other thing that might provide some hope and which is linked to this is the fact the Blues seem to generally up their game against the better teams.

So Everton have beaten Tottenham Hotspur, Leicester City, Wolves and Leeds United away and gained a point at Manchester United while they’ve also defeated Leicester and Chelsea at home and shared the points in the Goodison derby back in October.

That draw was a hugely controversial game of course. Pickford’s early rush of blood forced Liverpool’s Virgil Van Dijk off, possibly costing the Reds the chance to retain their title this season. Later in the match Richarlison lost his head as well and lashed out at Thiago Alcantara and got himself sent off too.

In between all those incidents there were four goals and the Blues twice came from behind to grab a hard-fought point.

Looking forward (or not), to Saturday’s clash, Carlo Ancelotti has some important selection decisions yet again.

The most significant individual player issue is what has happened to Allan? That actually sounds a bit like a sitcom title!

But the absence of the Brazilian midfielder both from the team and the bench against Manchester City was a little concerning. If he is still hurt and not fit enough to play on Saturday, that will be a major blow to Everton’s chances.

The other pressing problem is the injury on Wednesday to Yerry Mina. The Colombian central defender has been excellent recently and his probable absence on Saturday will be a problem for the Toffees defensively.

The obvious solution will be to stick with Seamus Coleman at right-back, (who will have to be at his best to deal with Sadio Mane their best forward) and continue with the rest of the defence as it ended up against City.

Although they conceded three goals overall it was still looks a pretty solid back four. The other alternative is to go to Ben Godfrey at right-back as he did well against Mane at Goodison and then Lucas Digne on the left.

Behind that defence I would return to Robin Olsen in goal. Pickford yet again had an up and down match against the league leaders, making some fine saves but then being possibly at fault for the third goal. And Pickford has had some horrible derby games and had a lot of blowback from the Goodison derby, which might affect him, I don’t know.

Without Allan, Tom Davies should continue in the centre of midfield alongside the apparently inexhaustible Abdoulaye Doucoure. If he wants a three then he will probably go with Gylfi Sigurdsson although he was awful against City and contributed nothing of note.

With Dominic Calvert-Lewin back, it will be good to see him line up alongside Everton’s best player on Wednesday; Richarlison.

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Whoever plays though the most important thing is to find the mental strength to beat these opponents. That lack of self-belief has been the biggest single problem Everton teams have had in derby matches.

Liverpool have, thank God, had a much more inconsistent campaign this term after running away with the league last season.

They’ve struggled to cope with a long list of injuries particularly in defence and it looks like they have now surrended their title to City.

Their attack has also stuttered for long periods and they are coming off three consecutive home defeats, which very rarely happens to them.

Liverpool’s difficulties at home mirror Everton’s own and it seems to be a theme this season most likely due to the lack of fans in grounds, as we’ve discussed. They usually have the massively over-hyped Anfield crowd behind them – it would have been great to silence that lot at last on Saturday!

But the odds are against them losing a fourth straight home game. So although the Toffees probably have their best chance on paper for a long while to get that ellusive Anfield win, I don’t see an Everton victory on Saturday. However, as we say every year, there is always hope…

Will Everton finally end Anfield jinx

By Matt Townsend | Feb 18, 2021

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