Perhaps it was no surprise that Sunday’s Merseyside derby finished in a draw considering that it was the seventh Everton away match to finish all square this season.

David Moyes’ team were missing Tim Cahill, Louis Saha and Phil Jagielka, so the Scot may well have taken a point before the game, although the Toffees manager was left frustrated by his team’s inability to hold on to a 2-1 lead.

Moyes admitted after the game that some of his players seemed overwhelmed by the occasion during the first half and that the team talk that was made during the interval proved to be vital.

“I am disappointed we didn’t take all three points after the second half but delighted to only come in 1-0 down after the first half because Liverpool were the better team,” he said.

“In the first half we never got to the pitch of the game and it looked as if we had some young players in the team who looked overawed by the start of the game.

“Liverpool won all the duels so it needed a word to correct it at half-time and in the second half we were terrific.

“I thought we had a chance when it went to 2-1 because we were on top but we were missing three or four big players.

“I know Liverpool were missing two (Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher) but it is different for a club like Everton, who have a much smaller squad.”

Everton are now slight favourites with Victor Chandler bookmakers at 4/5 to finish ahead of their Merseyside rivals Liverpool in an end of season match bet.