Everton defender Phil Jagielka believes his side have extra motivation heading into the Merseyside derby with Liverpool as they look to continue their good start to the season, but insists that they aren’t favourites for the game.

The Toffees are currently fourth in the Premier League after playing eight games this season, and have appeared to avoid the slow start that usually strikes them at the beginning of the campaign.

Jagielka is delighted with the club’s recent run of form and is determined to come out of the derby with the three points.

“I think it’s a strange one,” Jagielka told the club’s official website. “Normally we are desperate to beat them just because it’s Liverpool.

“But this time we would love to beat them, but we have to think about keeping ourselves up towards the top of the league.

“Normally we are playing catch-up [in the league] by now so it’s nice to be up there.

“We don’t look at it [in terms of favourites]. Derbies are a little bit different. We have a had a good start to the season so confidence should be high. We are all going to be up for it and hopefully we can get Goodison rocking.

“Obviously Steven Pienaar is a big player for us so seeing him get sent off was disappointing. But we have players who can come in. Hopefully we can get [Marouane Fellaini] back and possibly one or two others.”

The 29-year-old put in a good performance for David Moyes’ side in their 1-1 draw with QPR, with team-mate Tim Howard calling him an “animal”. He admitted that he is expecting to get busier with Everton’s attacking style of play set to continue.

Jagielka added: “I am not too sure if that was a compliment. I will have to ask him!

“It was one of those days, I thought Sylvain had a great game next to me. You throw yourself in there and sometimes the ball hits you and sometimes it doesn’t.

“We have conceded goals in games and with the expansive football we are playing we are having a little bit more to do. As long as we get a decent amount of points on the board, if we concede it is just one of those things.”

Anzhi Makhachkala boss Guus Hiddink is adamant Liverpool can return to their status as one of the best teams in the Premier League.

The former Netherlands boss takes his side to Anfield in their Europa League clash with the Reds after enjoying a solid start to their campaign, taking four points from their opening two games.

Hiddink recalls when he was Chelsea boss towards the end of the 2008-09 season, where Liverpool were challenging for the Premier League title but ultimately finished second to Manchester United.

He told reporters: “Of course, at that time they had different players and were more leading in the Premier League.”

The 65-year-old believes that despite the tough start to the season the Reds have suffered under new boss Brendan Rodgers, he is confident the club will return to their days of dominance in England’s top-flight sooner rather than later.

He added: “This season they have had a problematic start, but this is a huge institution – it will always recover. Liverpool will always resurrect and come up to the top, where they belong.”

Liverpool are currently third in Group A on three points after beating Young Boys in their opening game, but then suffered a 3-2 defeat to Udinese last time out in the Europa League.

The players and staff of Anzhi Makhachkala have paid their respects to the 96 victims of the Hillsborough tragedy .

Led by manager Gus Hiddink and striker Samuel Eto’o, the Russia outfit laid a wreath of flowers at the stadium on Wednesday as a symbol of support to the Merseyside club after completing their final training session ahead of their Europa League game against the Reds at Anfield.

The display comes in the wake of the Hillsborough Independent Panel’s findings in September that the emergency services committed “multiple failures”.

And, on Wednesday, former Merseyside police chief constable Norman Bettison resigned from his £225k-per-year post with the West Yorkshire Police following allegations about the events in 1989.

The investigation into the events surrounding the disaster is ongoing.