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EPL Talk
Daily News & Analysis of the English Premier League
The last time a Merseyside derby was scheduled as the match of the week (in the much-coveted Sunday timeslot of 4pm GMT/11am ET), it was three years ago. Liverpool beat Everton 2-1 at Anfield with goals by Gerrard and Luis Garcia. Cahill pulled one back for Everton, but of course the ma
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1 year ago
1 year ago
Think it'll be a blue weekend all round.
1 year ago
GO back and watch the game, you will see what I'm talking about.
Everton are out for revenge and Liverpool have lost at Anfield this year... to Wigan I believe? So they aren't unstoppable at home.
2-2 or;
a 2-1 to Liverpool.
1 year ago
The big clash at Anfield has everyone talking. It's a big matchup of rivals who were once part of the same team but are now increasing bitter antagonists. Yes, Hicks v Gillett is turning out to be a stormer.
Everton? That's just a bit of local difficulty.
Of course, beating Everton will be a nice way of erasing the memories of last week and the events at Old Trafford. And it'll serve as a nice warm-up for a big Champions League clash with Arsenal.
But biggest game of the season? Only in the crazy world of the Bitter Blue.
Relations between the two sets of fans have deteriorated in recent years. It's increasingly hard to have a rational conversation with an Evertonian. The phrase, "If it wasn't for Heysel" has become a destructive mantra that has changed the nature of the relationship between the two sets of fans. For some, the shame of Brussels was that it stopped the 'People's Club' from claiming their rightful place as the best team in Europe. The 39 dead? Extras in Everton's "tragedy". It's deluded nonsense on so many levels but, for too many, it has come to be seen as the moment when Everton's destiny changed, when they were robbed of their chance to be a big club.
It has spawned a new ugliness in the city on derby day. Last year, there were Evertonians in the Anfield Road end making gestures mocking the Hillsborough dead and and holding up copies of The Sun to antagoinse the home fans. This was never quite "the friendly derby" of popular fiction but the younger elements on each side can't even remember a time when it felt cordial.
Which is a shame. Especially for those who remember the mid-80s. Then, for the FA Cup Final and Charity Shield games, thousands of Scousers arrived on the same trains at Euston, red and blue ski hats mixed up as we stated our collective identity with chants of "Merseyside".
The derby has become a much bigger game for Everton than us. And that galls them more than anything. Recalling the old days, I wish they weren't so resentful.
Looking forward, a good spanking at Anfield would put Everton in their place and make them even more bitter. I could live with that. All in the spirit of comradeship, of course...
TONY EVANS
1 year ago
Tony, I'm afraid it's you who is deluded if you think that Heysel did not have a direct impact on changing the entire history of Everton Football Club.
Evertonians do not begrudge Liverpool their five European Cups, 18 Championships and the rest. What we do begrudge is the inability of Liverpool Football Club and their fans to acknowledge that the actions of some of their fans on the fateful night removed the possibility of Everton FC playing in - and possibly winning - the European Cup for the first time in our history, and led to our double title-winning teams of '85 and '87 breaking up, and the most successful manager in our history leaving the club.
For us (and other teams such as Wimbledon, who would have played in Europe for their first and only time), being banned from Europe for five years - for a tragedy instigated by Liverpool's fans - is a difficult pill to swallow.
Finally, to say that Evertonians regard the 39 dead as 'extras' is insulting and self-serving for your own one-eyed view.