By Chris Smith.
Nowadays, Merseyside derbies can be quite stale, one-sided affairs leaning heavily toward Liverpool. However, that wasn’t always the case.
During his first season in charge at the club in 2013/14, Roberto Martinez had Everton going like a steam train, beating the likes of Arsenal and Man Utd — the latter home and away — and coming oh so close to sealing Champions League football.
A Romelu Lukaku double left them agonisingly close to a 3-2 win over arch-rivals Liverpool at Goodison Park in late November, too, but Daniel Sturridge had other ideas, breaking blue hearts in the 89th minute.
Everton 3-3 Liverpool: Daniel Sturridge’s late header made it the highest-scoring Merseyside derby in #BPL history pic.twitter.com/HR2NW0qgfB
— Premier League (@premierleague) November 24, 2013
“A brilliant game, it had everything,” said the then Reds boss Brendan Rodgers.
“Magnificent,” added Martinez.
Both teams deserved to win, neither team deserved to lose and fans walked away from the ground feeling truly shellshocked.
For Everton, derbies like this one don’t come around very often, while even Kopites might admit they miss a good battle like this against “the bitters”.
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