The Merseyside derby: the 'friendly' derby that isn't

Uniquely, both clubs trace back to the same origin. Everton were the older club, playing at Anfield until a dispute over the ground's rent led to a breakaway. The departing faction formed a new club — Liverpool — to occupy Anfield, while Everton moved across Stanley Park to Goodison. Two of England's grandest clubs were born from one argument, and they have stared at each other across that park ever since.

Barely a few hundred metres of Stanley Park separate Goodison and Anfield, making Merseyside one of the closest derbies in world football. In many cities rivalry means separation; here it means proximity. Families are routinely split down the middle, red and blue sitting at the same dinner table, which is why the fixture earned its reputation as the 'friendly derby' — a game where supporters often stood together rather than apart.

On the pitch, the friendliness evaporates. For all its warm reputation off it, the Merseyside derby has produced more red cards than any other fixture in Premier League history — a statistic that tells you exactly how ferociously it is contested. The mutual respect in the stands does nothing to soften ninety minutes in which neither side can bear to lose to the neighbour they know best.

For long periods the balance has favoured Liverpool, but the derby has never been about league position alone. For Everton, denying their more decorated neighbours is a prize in itself; for Liverpool, complacency here is unthinkable. It is a fixture powered less by title races than by civic pride — the simple, unquenchable need to be the one club that can call the city its own.