Liverpool v Everton is still a derby but cannot be considered a rivalry

For Evertonians, perhaps the most upsetting aspect of the past week has been the number of Liverpool fans and former players reflecting on what a shame it would be if they got relegated. “I would be sad and I’m sure there’s a lot of other Liverpool fans who’d feel the same,” Ian Rush said on Friday. Jürgen Klopp used his press conference to lament Everton’s plight, admitting he would miss the derby if they ended up in the Championship next season.

In a way, the outpouring of lament is its own sly little twist of the knife. Turns out Everton could bear Liverpool’s hatred. They could live with the taunting and the tribal banter. It’s the sympathy they can’t stand.

But as a measure of the yawning void between these two clubs before the 240th Merseyside derby, it is as good as any. Doubtless there are still a few Liverpool fans out there who would gleefully celebrate Everton’s relegation as a fifth trophy, just as Everton fans will enthusiastically cheer on Villarreal in the Champions League on Wednesday.

Yet such is the divergence between them that you increasingly get the sense that neither is any longer the business of the other. In sporting terms, these two clubs may as well inhabit different worlds.

Frank Lampard said he would take a draw at Anfield on Sunday. Of course he would. So would most of his predecessors. But until recently it is a prospect none of them would dare entertain, let alone utter on camera. But Liverpool have bigger prizes on their mind these days and so do Everton.

The formbook does not go out of the window. Local pride is not at stake. The wider tussle has already been won and lost. Liverpool v Everton may still be a derby in the strictest definition of the word. But it is no longer a rivalry.

Thes