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I was asked this week if I was looking forward to the 245th Merseyside derby at Goodison Park.

It's a game which just needs to be won, at any cost, and only then can you truly enjoy it.

As an openly Blue sports reporter, the last league derby to be played at Goodison Park will not only be a nervy experience but a hugely emotional one also.

I always remember Rafa Benitez taking Steven Gerrard off in a derby once at Goodison because he suggested he was playing with his heart and not his head.

I'm sure the atmosphere inside Goodison on Wednesday will be as ferocious as the 'old lady' has ever witnessed.

One of the great things about derby week is remembering the good, the bad and the ugly of previous games - and my memory is littered with all three.

As a fan, the 4-4 in the cup and Andy King's volley stick out for me at Goodison but then there was the Glen Keeley derby, the on-loan defender being sent off early in the game only for Ian Rush, feared by all Everton fans for his derby antics and goals, to score four.

The hard part was that I'd bought a last-minute ticket off a Reds fan outside the ground and had to sit next to him in the Park End stand for the whole nightmare.

Liverpool head coach Arne Slot says his team are looking to bounce back from their FA Cup defeat in the last Merseyside derby at Goodison Park.

Liverpool come into the Merseyside derby on the back of a shock FA Cup defeat at Plymouth - but earned an impressive 2-0 win at Bournemouth in their last league game

Once again this time around, Everton find themselves going into the game as underdogs with Liverpool top of the league and flying - but, as they say in derbies, the formbook goes out the window.

David Moyes knows all about the passion and importance of the Merseyside derby and with both sides having won 41 matches each at Goodison he, along with the blue half of the City and beyond, will not want to bow out having lost more games than their old rivals at the famous home of Everton FC.


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