Key events
Preamble
Baking cookies or making stock with the lid off; visiting the smallest room and making use of all the rooms; we each have ways of turning a house into a home. Generally speaking, though, we tend to refrain from inviting round hated former neighbours in the hope of smashing them up in front of a worldwide audience; good old football.
Of course, in such context, such behaviour makes perfect sense: the thing that most firmly anchors us to a place is shared experience. Except those can be both positive and negative and so far, Everton’s record in their new digs is spotty – they’re 14th in the home table – as it is in home derbies – they’ve won one since October 2010 and just four in the league this century. Which is to say can invite the hated former neighbours in, but there’s no guarantee they won’t wreck the gaff and you with it.
And there’s more riding on this conflict than base hatred, delicious, affirming and deliciously affirming though it is: Liverpool sit fourth in the league table and Everton 10th, but between the gap between the two is a mere five points. Consequently, the Champions League is in the grasp of the former but still attainable for the latter, with the Europa and Conference similarly in play – likewise Arne Slot’s job, a state of affairs that seemed impossible just less than a year ago when he was dancing about as a champion.
But though the vibe in a home is a facility of the people in it, it quickly becomes clutter. Then if, on top of that, you toss in a load of posh but unnecessary furniture while ignoring the aspects of it which require urgent attention, it shouldn’t be all that surprising when a mess doth ensue. Whether Slot is permitted to tidy it depends a lot on what happens this afternoon.
Kick-off: 2pm BST