Sky Sports pundit Paul Merson is expecting Liverpool to get back to winning ways in this week’s Merseyside derby against Everton— but he says David Moyes has already proven him wrong.
The former Arsenal midfielder thinks Liverpool will have too much for Everton in the end. The Reds will hope to move further towards securing the Premier League title with a victory that would avenge the late equalizer scored by James Tarkowski at Goodison Park and get them back on track after defeats to PSG in the Champions League and Newcastle United in the Carabao Cup final.
“I’ve got to go with Liverpool here,” Merson wrote in his Sportskeeda column. “David Moyes has done a mind-blowing job at Everton. He proved me wrong when I said it wouldn’t work for him the second time at Goodison Park.
“I had no doubts about him being a top manager, no question about that! I just thought Everton as a club changed a lot from the last time he was here. It just shows how top managers can work their magic whenever they want.
“I expect Everton to make it hard for Liverpool, but I look at them and I don’t see an X-factor that can hurt the hosts at Anfield. Liverpool have not consistently blown teams away this season. They have just been efficient and consistently better than the others.
“I don’t want to make it sound like Liverpool are not a good team or that they don’t deserve to win the league. But they are not like the best Manchester City side that dominated the league under Pep Guardiola.
“Liverpool were looking a bit leggy before the international break, so the rest came at the right time for them. The holy grail for Liverpool is winning the league and I expect them to do it. If you asked any Liverpool fan what trophy they wanted to win at the start of the season, they would’ve picked the Premier League.”
Arsenal, the closest team to Liverpool in the table, is currently 12 points behind Arne Slot’s side. The Gunners face Everton at the weekend but play Fulham at home on Tuesday before that.
Liverpool.com says: At Anfield, Liverpool is always going to be the favorite to beat Everton. With nine games remaining and nothing else to focus on but winning the league title, Slot’s men should have too much.
It will be interesting to see how he lines up his starting XI but with Conor Bradley and Trent Alexander-Arnold missing through injury and Joe Gomez training on his own rather than with the team, it will probably be Jarell Quansah at right-back. Elsewhere, the only real decision is who starts alongside Mohamed Salah in attack.
