Everton V Liverpool

Yesterday’s derby was certainly a strange one, with the two week build-up and the drama at Liverpool allowing people’s expectations to differ massively day-to-day.

The one constant seemed to be Evertonians' quiet confidence, although we’ve had that feeling before going into derbies it’s always pricked by the foreboding feeling of Liverpool’s divine right to ‘beat de bitters’, usually helped along by the employees of the Premier League, who clearly have no vested interest in Liverpool’s status as an attractive marketing tool, as proven this past week…..

Anyway, yesterday was different, the extra ability they usually have is no longer there, which makes it much harder for the boys in black to hand it on a plate.

We were on top from the first whistle, to the bemusement of ageing lesbian, John W Henry.  The pressure finally paid when Coleman got his head down and ran at their left-side, pulling it back for Cahill to smash it  home - 1-0.

The injured Osman was replaced at half-time by young lesbian Bilyaletdinov and once Arteta scored the second soon after, pouncing on a poor clearance and guiding it in with the outside of his boot, even the most pessimistic of blues were having trouble convincing themselves ‘they’ll still win this’.

The optimism was such that even the withdrawal of Arteta with 15-20 minutes left, replaced by Beckford, failed to give us anything to fear.  Although we sat back as a result there was a feeling we had another gear to go up to if necessary, as opposed to our two-stroke opponents.  Who are hopefully stuck in reverse.