It’s fair to say the Merseyside derby has never been for the faint-hearted. “Ninety minutes of frenetic lunacy” was how Everton legend Joe Royle - who enjoyed significant success in the fixture as a player before going on to never lose a game against Liverpool as Toffees manager - once described it, amusingly adding: “We always said we could go out and play for the first twenty minutes, settle down and then someone could throw the ball on.”
All too often, the high stakes and fear of making the mistake which could plunge one half of the city into despair and the other into ecstasy can lead to the sides cancelling each other out, Opta Joe reporting after the recent 0-0 at Goodison Park - the ninth draw out of the last 11 played on the blue side of Stanley Park - that the age-old local dispute has seen more goalless draws than any other fixture in both English top-flight (36) and Premier League history (12).
There are of course exceptions to every rule. Less than a decade ago, Brendan Rodgers’s and Roberto Martinez’s attack-minded sides played out a memorable 3-3 draw at Goodison while the epic 4-4 FA Cup fifth round replay extravaganza in 1991 has long been written into folklore.
