There has been little fanfare, let alone talk of a power shift, despite David Moyes’ side being set to finish above their city rivals for the second season in a row

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By David Lynch

We should, perhaps, have seen it coming. Sunday’s Merseyside derby, a feisty 0-0 draw with little to shout about in terms of chances, taught us absolutely nothing. The participants battled for pride and little else, as a stalemate of a result summed up the fruitless nature of two almost equal forces meeting head on.

Even had either side won, Liverpool and Everton were always destined to finish next to each other in the Premier League table for a second year running. And the order those two clubs finish is arguably consequential only to those who must face a summer-long reminder of their inferiority from work colleagues and friends who occupy the opposite side of the divide.

But, if these rivals currently inhabit the same stratosphere – and on the evidence of two draws this season, they do – the disparate directions in which they are heading could only be gleaned from the words of their managers.

Unsurprisingly, David Moyes took his trademark position. “I don’t want to come in here and talk about cash because that would be probably what you think I talk about every year I come here,” he began, with no hint of irony.

“But it’s a factor. We’re a long way down in competing financially with a Tottenham or an Arsenal or a Liverpool. But today when you were watching the game, you weren’t thinking about that. You were only thinking about two teams of 11 players on that pitch trying to compete.”

Disregarding his futile promise not to discuss the issue, Moyes is exactly right. Though all talk of a power shift last season was nullified by Liverpool’s League Cup win and hat-trick of victories over their local rivals, things have been different this year. Everton have avoided defeat at the hands of the Reds, look certain to finish above them and yet, somehow, disappointment still reigns.

In truth it is because this changing of the guard lacks momentum, as Moyes’ managerial counterpart Brendan Rodgers outlined with his talk of plans for the upcoming summer. “We need to find one or two players that can help make the difference in games like that,” he said. “It’s a lot of draws we’ve had this season and it’s something we need to find the solution for next year.”

Everton must face the fact that such luxuries are beyond them, even if it is an uncomfortable truth which takes all the gloss from the sizeable achievement of overhauling their rivals. The Toffees feel like a team playing at the peak of their powers, the zenith of Moyes’ potential with a restrictive wage bill and negligible transfer budget.

Liverpool, meanwhile, can take bizarre solace from the fact that they remain underachievers with the financial muscle to correct their current malaise. For example, the approaching retirement of Jamie Carragher is not a disaster from which it will be hard to recover – the funds exist to replace him. But you feel that the same cannot be said of his fellow 35-year-old Sylvain Distin over at Goodison Park.

As Phil Jagielka, who was magnificent at Anfield, put it earlier in the week: “Other [teams] can sign five players and be lucky with two. We make two, and if one doesn’t work out we have our backs to the wall.” Moyes will soon face that challenge yet again, with Distin joined by Steven Pienaar, Leon Osman and Tim Howard on the list of key players on the wrong side of 30.

Such quandaries may well help the Everton manager make up his mind in the summer, with his contract set to expire and a long list of admirers forming. The Scot may not have ended the club’s 18-year wait for a trophy should he leave, but perhaps toppling Liverpool – if only temporarily – is the most that can be expected.

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The Reds captain believes the goalless draw against Everton is another example of his team’s shortcomings against England’s top clubs

Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard rued his side’s inability to take their chances against the Premier League’s strongest teams after the 0-0 draw against Everton on Sunday.

The Merseyside rivals played out a terse stalemate at Anfield as the hosts struggled to turn their possession into clear-cut chances without top scorer Luis Suarez.

And Gerrard sees Liverpool’s inability to break down a stubborn Everton defence as symptomatic of larger problems the club have faced this term.

“Everton have improved a lot,” Gerrard told Sky Sports. “Although we are disappointed not to get three points – we’ve lacked cutting edge against the bigger sides this season.

“We limited Everton to very few chances today and since he’s come back into our team I think Jamie [Carragher] has been our most consistent player.

“I wouldn’t like to be in Brendan Rodgers’ shoes when he’s trying to pick his replacement. I think [a goal] is all we wanted at the end – especially for [Carragher] in his last derby.”

Carragher, meanwhile, playing in his final Merseyside derby ahead of his retirement at the end of the season, was content with a share of the spoils despite his hopes of a fairytale last outing against the Toffees.

“It wasn’t to be and I think a draw is a fair result,” he said. “It was a tense derby with not many chances at either end. It was a good day, I would have liked to have won the derby but at least we didn’t lose.”

Liverpool and Everton contested a tense Merseyside derby that ended up a 0-0 stalemate at Anfield.

Clear-cut chances on goal came at a premium, with Sylvain Distin’s disallowed goal in the second half proving the major talking point in a tight encounter.

The result sees Everton maintain their five-point lead over their rivals, with David Moyes’ side looking primed to beat their rivals into a sixth place Premier League finish.

Reds boss Brendan Rodgers made no changes from the line-up that demolished Newcastle 6-0 last weekend, while counterpart David Moyes made a solitary change, with Darron Gibson replacing the off-form Nikica Jelavic.

Until Marouane Fellaini guided Leighton Baines’ whipped delivery just wide of the post in the 17th minute, the usually frantic fixture was uncharacteristically shy of incident.

Thereafter, Everton had Phil Jagielka to thank for a couple timely blocks, with the Toffee’s captain first denying Steven Gerrard, before lunging to prevent Phillipe Coutinho latching onto Daniel Sturridge’s tidy lay-off.

Sturridge squandered decent opportunities on his favoured left foot, twice dragging disappointingly wide when free on the edge of the area, while Gerrard sent a free-kick whistling just wide of the post as referee Michael Oliver called time on a terse first half.

After the interval a delightful pass from Coutinho, with the outside of his boot, afforded Sturridge the chance of a one-on-one with Tim Howard, though the goalkeeper did well to snuff the striker out.

Distin seemed to have given the visitors the lead after nodding home Baines’ corner, only to see the effort controversially disallowed for the centre-back’s jostle with Jamie Carragher.

Coutinho’s snapshot was comfortably gathered by the goalkeeper as Liverpool chased a winner, before Gerrard powered onto Sturridge’s through-ball and beyond Howard, yet couldn’t muster enough power to fire past the recovering Distin.

As the game entered its latter stages Liverpool continued to exert pressure, though Daniel Agger could only guide Gerrard’s free-kick wide of the upright, injuring his wrist in the process as the game finished in a rather uninspiring stalement.