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Early game again on TNT, which is probably not ideal after travelling to Newcastle in midweek, but necessary as the game after this is an early kick-off in Girona on Tuesday. This is likely to be the last derby game at Goodison, so we have to expect that they will be up for it. They might well be up or it anyway as it’s a derby, but they’ll have seen how sluggish we were and may decide it’s time for another blood and thunder (read: dogs of war) effort. So far this season they’ve been exactly what they been for years now, circling the drain, pulling off the odd result and staying up because three other teams have been worse. After their points deduction for PSR failures last season, they went down the route of several other PSR-affected teams by selling a player for a large fee and booking the whole profit (Onana to Villa), while bringing it others for relative peanuts so they can amortise the fee over the length of the player’s contract (Ndiaye from Marseille, Iroegbunam from Villa, O’Brien from Lyon), and again brought in a bunch of others on loan (Harrison from Leeds again, Lindstrom from Napoli, Broja from Chelsea and Mangala from Lyon). This is about us though. As we play the early game, it’s a chance for us to extend our lead at the top before all the other teams play later on, or on Sunday. We need to be fully aware and expecting that Everton will want to throw the kitchen sink at us. We have to be fully aware that the ref will likely fall for all their playacting and time-wasting. We have to be fully aware that the crowd will be baying for blood. We have to counter all of that, be at the races from the beginning, seize the control and the initiative, and display a ruthless will to win. We’ll be without Macca as he’s suspended (he’s also suspended for the Girona game so he has a week and a half to take a much-needed breather), and no word yet on whether any of the missing outfield players are ready to join the squad again. The ones that are available need to step up and get the Newcastle performance out of their system. Do not let this game become like last season’s sorry effort. Give the piss-soaked wooden-legged Old Lady the send-off it deserves and leave the orcs to their chorus of boos and screwed-up faces of fume. How have our previous managers got on in their first away fixture against the Blooshite? Not surprisingly it’s a mixed bag given that it’s wasn’t until the new millennium that we secured a victory in the Premier League era at the home of our near neighbours. After failing at their initial attempt, Ged and Rafa regularly secured 3 points there. Souness...07/12/1992...Everton 2-1 Liverpool (Wright) Evans...21/11/1994...Everton 2-0 Liverpool Houllier...21/04/2000...Everton 0-0 Liverpool Benitez...11/12/2004...Everton 1-0 Liverpool Hodgson...17/10/2010...Everton 2-0 Liverpool Dalglish...01/10/2011...Everton 0-2 Liverpool (Carroll, Suarez) Rodgers...28/10/2012...Everton 2-2 Liverpool (Baines og, Suarez) Klopp...19/12/2016...Everton 0-1 Liverpool (Mane) I don't ask for much. Maximum motivation, control, application, attitude and concentration from minute one. 3 points please. Get it done!