At one of their least favorite venues to visit, Anfield, Everton will play host to local rivals Liverpool on Saturday in the Merseyside derby. Everton had lost their last two trips across Stanley Park by a combined score of two goals to nil, having ended a dreadful 22-year run without a victory at Anfield in 2021.
However, Everton has had some very dismal Anfield evenings over the last 20 years, and manager Sean Dyche will be hoping to avoid any repeats this weekend. Sports Mole recollects Everton’s five worst Anfield performances ahead of this Saturday’s game.
3. Liverpool (2006) 3-1 Everton. Everton never seemed likely to repeat their season of beating Liverpool to fourth place in the Premier League and their first-ever Champions League qualification. Everton’s success was overshadowed by Liverpool’s victory in the competition that year, and they went on to play in the UCL again the next season thanks to a 3-1 victory over David Moyes’s team. This outcome is especially embarrassing because Everton trailed 2-0 just after halftime, while Liverpool were reduced to 10 men in just 18 minutes following Steven Gerrard’s dismissal.
2. Liverpool 2014 defeated Everton 4-0. Everton was playing some of their best football in years during a stretch that included the first of two 4-0 routs of Anfield under Roberto Martinez. Everton was well-favored for a top-four finish going into the derby, having only lost once in their previous 14 games. However, the Toffees were left stunned as a Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge-inspired Liverpool team completely destroyed them in the first half of the match. Martinez’s team missed out on the top four with an amazing total of 72 points, and even though they improved toward the end of the season, Everton would lose two of their subsequent three games.
1. Everton 4-0 Liverpool (2016). Everton was thoroughly humiliated in Jurgen Klopp’s first derby as Liverpool manager, and the second of those humiliating losses under Martinez virtually sealed the Spaniard’s fate. Everton was outclassed in one of the most lopsided games in Premier League history, losing 4-0 in the process before Ramiro Funes Mori was sent off with the score at 2-0. Sturridge and Philippe Coutinho then added two more goals to send Everton reeling. Liverpool’s 37 shots to Everton’s three, of which, predictably, none were on target, made for extremely depressing reading on the blue half of Merseyside.
Three days later, Liverpool lost an FA Cup semi-final to Manchester United, and Martinez was fired shortly after.
