Everton boss Roberto Martinez is hopeful of their first win at Anfield since September 1999. The Blue side of Merseyside have played 16 matches since their last success at their City rivals but the former Wigan manager is confident they can break the hoodo. Martinez expressed the urge of using this to his sides benefit as a motivational tool “the stats are there to be broken, we need embrace and it is something we look forward to”. Martinez continued with “It is a tough place to visit but there are many more in the league  that we’ve gone to and made history”. With the Everton boss referring to ending their 21 year winless record at Old Trafford last season with a 1-0 win.

Brendan Rogers has highlighted that the increased amount of new faces has put more pressure on his side as they look to emulate last season’s heroics. Rogers continued “as you bring in players and lose the core, it can become a little bit broken; we are all set on re-focusing on what has seen us win consistently over the last 18 months”.

The Reds could have Daniel Sturridge available after recovering from his injury picked up on international duty but after not training all week, he could be set for a place on the bench. However Jordan Henderson and Philippe Coutinho should be fit despite injury problems but Emre Can, Glen Johnson, Jon Flanagan and Joe Allen remain out.

With both sides competing in Europe this season, last week’s defeats at West Ham for Liverpool and at home to Palace for Everton came after victory for both in their first group match. With Liverpool away in Basel on Wednesday and Everton in Russia on Thursday, both will be looking for a win. Everton will be waiting on the Seamus Coleman who is doubtful with a head injury and Steven Pienaar with a hamstring problem but Ross Barkley returned to light training this week.

Liverpool have only lost one of their last 15 premier league games against Everton but if defeated in the Derby they would have lost three consecutive matches for the first time since 2012. With goals a plenty in last season’s encounters, Everton will need to careful of similar fate of their 4-0 defeat January and conceding 13 goals in 5 matches this is a major problem for what has been a good defence. However only 2 of the goals have been conceded away from home with the Blues achieving 4 clean sheets out of their last 8 away matches.