Premier League Preview: Everton v Liverpool

The 219th Merseyside derby shapes as one of the more important ones as fourth-placed Everton host improving rivals Liverpool on Sunday.

Everton, who have lost just one of their opening eight fixtures, are three points behind Manchester United and Manchester City in the English Premier League.

“Normally we are desperate to beat them just because it’s Liverpool,” defender Phil Jagielka told the Everton website.

“But this time we would love to beat them but we have to think about keeping ourselves up towards the top of the league.”

Liverpool, on the other hand, occupy 12th with nine points, having lost to United, Arsenal and West Bromwich Albion in an underwhelming start under new manager Brendan Rodgers.

But the Reds returned to form with a 1-0 victory against Reading at the weekend followed by a win over Russian side Anzhi Makhachkala in the Europa League on Thursday.

“It’s three clean sheets in a row which is important for us and we’re now adding that bit of steel and concentration to some of the elements that we’re working on,” Rodgers said.

“The squad is not overly big but the condition of the players is very good so I have no concerns about that.

“Their work rate in training and in the games has been very good, so we’ll recover well. It was a very good performance and now we are all really looking forward to Sunday.”

While Everton remain unbeaten in the Premier League at home since March, Liverpool head to Goodison Park full of confidence having won five of their past seven matches at the stadium.