This Sunday’s Merseyside Derby between Everton and Liverpool at Goodison Park is a match between two sides who are short of form and struggling in the Premier League this season. Everton and Liverpool currently lie 14th and 7th in the Premier League respectively and both clubs would have been hoping to perform much better at the start of the season. The match on Sunday is sure to be fiercely contested and passions will be running high as both teams will look to kick-start their season with a positive result.

Everton have been hampered by injuries to key player this season such as Mikel Arteta and Phil Jagielka, but manager David Moyes will still be very disappointed with the performances of his team in recent weeks. On Wednesday they embarrassingly fell 3-0 behind to Hull at the KC Stadium, before making a comeback of sorts to bring the score to 3-2, but most importantly they still left without picking up any points. One player to come out with some credit this season is Louis Saha, and the Toffees will be hoping that he can add to his Premiership goal tally on Sunday.

The problems at Liverpool this season have been well documented and following their early exit from the Champions League, Liverpool fans will be desperate to see their team climb up the Premier League table. Injuries to Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres this season have shown up how heavily the Reds rely on those two and some of the backup players just haven’t been up to the standard required. Manager Rafa Benitez has been given assurances over his future at the club, and a positive result against Everton would help to get some of the fans off his back in the short-term at least.