Revenge is a dish best served cold was an ominous threat uttered by Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather but is usually accredited to Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, an 18th century French army general who preferred to be an creator and notably wrote Dangerous Liaisons.
It’s just below two months since James Tarkowski smashed an unbelievable 98th-minute equaliser within the last Merseyside derby at Goodison Park, sending home fans into delirium and creating ructions on the pitch, so the Toffees best take heed of the proverb.
Referee Michael Oliver flashed red cards to Abdoulaye Doucoure, Curtis Jones, Reds manager Arne Slot and his assistant Sipke Hulshoff within the aftermath of the 2-2 draw – and bad blood could have lingered.
Now the return match at Anfield is with us it’s time to go to the mattresses and prepare for battle and it won’t take much for this to boil over, with each sets of fans baying for cards to be flashed left, right and centre.
Tim Robinson is a superb appointment to be the person with the whistle as based on the Premier League app, he has shown only one red card in 11 top-flight matches this season while giving out 54 yellows.
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That’s a way off the pace set by Oliver, who has sent off six players and dished out 97 bookings in 21 games, while Robert Jones has also given half-a-dozen players an early finish while showing yellow to 75 players in 17 matches.
Robinson is unlikely to point out a red card unless it is totally needed and the variety of yellows is unlikely to be excessive, so take under 4.5 cards at 11/10 with StarSports.
Liverpool could have been thankful for the international break after losing to Newcastle within the Carabao Cup final and being eliminated from the Champions League by Paris Saint-Germain, having already exited the FA Cup in additional embarrassing circumstances at Championship basement-boys Plymouth Argyle.
Now they will likely be in search of to regain the swagger which put them 12 points clear at the highest before the Premier League’s halt in play.
Everton are fifteenth within the table, 17 points clear of the underside three, and are unbeaten of their last nine league games, with five draws of their last six as David Moyes continues to do a sterling job in his second stint in charge.
They will likely be a tricky nut to crack and while the Reds, who will likely be missing the injured, Real Madrid-bound Trent Alexander-Arnold, could also be triumphant it won’t be by much. A 2-1 win is 17/2 with bet365 and the Toffees plus two goals is 3/4 in BoyleSports’ and Betway’s handicap markets.
• FA Cup semi-finalists Crystal Palace can return to Premier League motion with a bang by sending Southampton to a twenty fifth defeat in 30 Premier League matches.
The Eagles are flying high with 22 points from the last 30 available, a record only bettered by Liverpool, and so they have won their last six away games in all competitions without conceding a goal.
Palace are 4/6 to win outright with Betfred and seven/4 with the identical firm, bet365 and Sky Bet to win while keeping a clean sheet.
• Structure Hill can return to winning ways following his shock defeat when falling 4 from home within the Champion Hurdle on the Cheltenham Festival by beating Lossiemouth within the Aintree Hurdle on the primary day of this week’s Grand National meeting.
Nicky Henderson’s stable star won the identical race when jumping well to beat Sharjah by a cushty three lengths 12 months ago and is 8/11 with bet365.
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