New-look Everton determined to earn elusive win at Anfield

Positivity and possibilities abound at Goodison Park after years of grim determination

Roberto Martinez has instilled a positive atmosphere around Everton after taking over from the more reserved David Moyes. Paul Gilham / Getty Images
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It feels fitting that it happened in another millennium. Everton’s wait for a win at Anfield has been agonisingly long. The last came in a very different era, when Kevin Campbell scored the only goal for Walter Smith’s physical, functional and overwhelmingly British side.

Common denominators between that night in November 1999 and on Tuesday are few and far between, save for the presence of Steven Gerrard, a teenage substitute who was sent off at the back end of the 20th century.

The sense, though, is that, despite Liverpool’s revival under Brendan Rodgers, Everton cross Stanley Park in more optimistic mood than at any point since then.

It is a mood change, a radical shift in attitude that reflects the more upbeat outlook around Goodison Park in Roberto Martinez’s reign. Everton went to Old Trafford furnished with the belief they could win there for the first time since 1992 and duly did. They ventured south to Arsenal intent on outplaying the league leaders and emerged with the plaudits, if only a single point.

A team that used to travel to face the favourites seemingly equipped with a damage-limitation strategy are now in a world of limitless possibilities. Martinez is far too diplomatic a man to criticise his predecessor and, indeed, with a solid defensive structure, he has benefited from a better inheritance than David Moyes has had at Manchester United, but it is revealing he believes there was a “mental block” at Goodison Park.

That inferiority complex was particularly apparent at Anfield. Moyes secured seven draws there, four of them stalemates, but the impression was that was the best possible outcome.

Everton deservedly finished ahead of Liverpool in the last two seasons, but when they entered the 2012 FA Cup semi-final as Merseyside’s in-form team, they underperformed and lost. The sort of result that would have sent out a statement eluded them.

It made Everton the antithesis of Martinez’s Wigan Athletic, a team capable of confounding expectations with their ability to beat the best and lose to the worst. It was why the FA Cup winner arrived at Everton with a record that remained open to interpretation. Half a season into his reign, doubters are conspicuous by their absence.

Everton have proved consistent both in terms of results – their tally of two league defeats is the fewest in the country – and performances. Even in those setbacks, they attacked with verve at Manchester City and their 10 men were unfortunate not to take a point against Sunderland.

They still draw too many games, a fault Moyes’s team also had, but when the points were shared in the season’s first derby, it was after a six-goal thriller.

That both teams are weakened by defensive injuries – Everton will be without Bryan Oviedo and Seamus Coleman while Sylvain Distin is a doubt – suggests the rematch could be as eventful. The guarantee is that the principles will remain the same. Whereas the North London and Manchester rivalries have improbable scorelines and goal gluts, the Merseyside meetings have been tighter, tenser affairs.

The combination of Martinez and Rodgers, two managers who put the onus on attack, threatens to change that.

They are belying the theory many a manager has espoused, that nice guys finish last. Before a recent flurry of red cards, this was long known as “the friendly derby” and Merseyside certainly seems a friendlier place without the suspicious Kenny Dalglish and the abrupt Moyes.

There were times when, with Wigan embroiled in a relegation struggle, Martinez seemed cocooned in a bubble of positivity. His optimism was usually rewarded and, at Everton, he has implemented a feel-good factor that is helping the entire club.

The sense of unity was apparent in a Christmas video where staff and players such as Romelu Lukaku, Tim Howard and Phil Jagielka joined Martinez in a rendition of Bring Me Sunshine.

Crucially, though, there is steel to the ever-present sunny demeanour. Martinez resisted Moyes’s advances for Leighton Baines last summer and, with fine timing, Everton on Monday announced the left-back has signed a new four-year contract. Given Coleman’s excellence this season, they can now be confident of a future featuring the Premier League’s two most productive attacking full-backs.

They serve as the embodiment of Martinez’s Everton: even the defenders are forward-thinking. In itself, it indicates the swing in thinking from the time Moyes’s team would defend from the front. It is a tactical change that has made a traditional club look progressive.

And progress is not achieved by playing for a draw. So Everton will make the shortest journey in the Premier League attempting to take another giant stride; not just towards their goal of Uefa Champions League football, but in terms of establishing themselves as a team who can beat anyone, anywhere.

Given the presence of Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge in the Liverpool ranks, it may backfire. Yet there is an Evertonian ethos now and if, like many of their predecessors, they leave Anfield with a point, it probably will not be with the regret that they did not put enough effort into trying to win the game.

sports@thenational.ae