Everton and Liverpool will meet for a poignant final Merseyside derby at Goodison Park in the Premier League on Wednesday night.
The fixture had to be rearranged after Storm Darragh led to its postponement at the start of December, and ahead of the 245th iteration, both clubs were dumped out of the FA Cup at the weekend.
Match preview
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Mother Nature certainly caused it, but it feels like fate that the final meeting between these two clubs at Goodison Park will be under the lights, at a venue that has been synonymous with memorable night matches over its long history.
Along with the Goodison finale against Southampton in May, no fixture will have more emotion attached to it than this one for Everton supporters, and it will be even more special now that one of the club's longest-serving managers is back in the dugout for it.
David Moyes has had a huge impact since his return to Merseyside, leading Everton to three straight Premier League wins that have moved them nine points clear of the bottom three.
Wins over Tottenham Hotspur, Brighton & Hove Albion and Leicester City, scoring eight goals in the process, have moved Everton close to guaranteed safety, especially with their much-improved goal difference.
The successes over Spurs and Leicester saw Everton lead 3-0 at half time in both, managing that feat in back-to-back home games for the first time in 63 years, and it came after scoring just two first-half goals at Goodison in their first 10 home games of the season.
Moyes has now won as many league games in four outings than Sean Dyche managed in 19, but there was a lot of disappointment on Saturday, as Everton's last ever cup match at the Grand Old Lady ended in a 2-0 defeat to Bournemouth.
This will be another hugely challenging evening for the Toffees too, because despite being the first team outside of the Premier League's top eight to win three straight games this season, they have won just four from 47 against teams starting the day top of the PL table.
The fact that it is against Liverpool is even greater cause for concern, because Everton's record in this fixture has been utterly dismal since the turn of the millennium.
In 54 meetings since 2000, Everton have won just six, but after victory at Goodison last season, the hosts have the chance to win back-to-back derbies for the first time in 40 years.
A loss here last season ended Liverpool's 12-game unbeaten run in the league at Goodison, and any remaining hopes they had of lifting the title in Jurgen Klopp's final season at the helm.
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New manager Arne Slot now takes charge of his first, with Liverpool seeking their 100th league win over Everton, which would be just the fifth time a club has recorded three-figure victories over another in the history of the Football League.
Slot has plenty to live up to after Klopp's excellent record against Everton, but the German was rarely successful at Goodison, because after winning his first, the iconic manager was only able to win one more in seven trips.
Local bragging rights may be on the line, but there is much more at stake for Liverpool too, given that a win here would move them nine points clear of Arsenal, after having this game in hand for over two months.
With just two wins in 12 at Goodison though, it is not the ideal venue to visit after a humbling FA Cup defeat at the weekend, where Liverpool became just the fourth Premier League leaders to be knocked out the competition by a lower-league side.
Slot's men may be 19 unbeaten in the league, through to an EFL Cup final and cruising in the Champions League, but that did not scare Plymouth Argyle, who knocked the Reds out of the FA Cup on Sunday with a 1-0 win at Home Park.
Just three days after reaching the EFL Cup final, Slot rang the changes, and it became clear that Liverpool's second string are nowhere near the same level as their strongest XI, and overreliance on a few individuals could be problematic further down the line.
Team News
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Moyes picked a very strong Everton XI for the fourth-round tie against Bournemouth on Saturday, and it could look very similar here, with one or two changes out wide the only likely alterations.
Vitalii Mykolenko missed Saturday's defeat with a calf strain, but could return in place of Ashley Young, who was sent off against Liverpool last season, while Jack Harrison may replace Jesper Lindstrom on the right flank after a promising cameo off the bench against the Cherries.
With Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Armando Broja and Youssef Chermiti all sidelined, Beto will start up front for the hosts, and Dwight McNeil will also be missing after undergoing minor knee surgery at the end of January.
Slot is set to make 10 changes from the side that lost at Plymouth, most likely reverting back to the exact XI that beat Spurs 4-0 in their EFL Cup semi-final second leg on Thursday.
Luis Diaz underwhelmed as the one player who kept his place, but he should retain his spot in the side, with Diogo Jota, Harvey Elliott and Federico Chiesa all set to drop out.
Mohamed Salah, Cody Gakpo and Virgil van Dijk were just some of the players who did not even travel down to Plymouth, but while they will return, Trent Alexander-Arnold is set to miss out, after Slot did not sound overly optimistic about his chances of featuring in the next couple of weeks.
Everton possible starting lineup:
Pickford; O'Brien, Tarkowski, Branthwaite, Mykolenko; Harrison, Gueye, Garner, Doucoure, Ndiaye; Beto
Liverpool possible starting lineup:
Alisson; Bradley, Konate, Van Dijk, Robertson; Gravenberch, Mac Allister, Szoboszlai; Salah, Diaz, Gakpo
We say: Everton 0-1 Liverpool
No game has seen as many 0-0 draws in Premier League history as this one (12), but no team has scored more injury-time winners against another than Liverpool have against Everton in the competition (five), and the entire home fanbase will be hugely fearful of something similar happening on their special night.
Sitting nine points clear of the drop zone and out of the FA Cup means there is little left for Everton to play for, so their task will be simply to halt Liverpool's surge towards the title, but they may just come up short here.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Andrew Delaney
