1. David Moyes & The Boardroom

It must be as irritating as piles to the boys from over the park that we have such a dynamic young manager. Moyes has pulled Everton's socks up over the seasons, and on a lesser budget has achieved bigger changes. Interestingly, his philosophy with regards to the Toffees' squad is diametrically opposed to Rafa's; if you play well under Moyes you are guaranteed a place in the team for the next game – a promise forged during fiery and frank exchanges with senior squad members during a slump in form early in the Scot's tenure. Under Rafa, an anxious croupier forever reshuffling his deck, Liverpool's side morphs from one game to the next, something which hinders consistency.

2. Kenwright and Wyness

‘A quick glance over to Anfield shows us that they are in a dire state of affairs, with DIC sniffing around, and Hicks and Gillett playing their cards close to their chest...’


Following on with the idea of consistency, Everton's passionate chairman Bill Kenwright, aided by the financial nous of Keith Wyness, has progressively settled Evertonian stomachs and exorcised painful memories of Peter "Agent Johnson", our previous chairman, who went a long way to dismantling the club's hopes.

A quick glance over to Anfield shows us that they are in a dire state of affairs, with DIC sniffing around, and Hicks and Gillett playing their cards close to their chest – instability like that, right at the summit of Liverpool FC, has tumbled down through the club , affecting the manager (just look at his very public spats with Hicks and Gillett), the players (a number of them, including captain Stevie G, have complained about the very obvious disunity amongst the owners) and the fans (very vocal in their disgust with Gillett and Hicks). In fact you are far more likely to see the American flag when the Toffees play, and when Evertonians do fly the stars and stripes and bellow "U-S-A! U-S-A!" around Goodison (contrary to what Alan Green thinks) it isn't to taunt their Merseyside rivals, but as a tribute to goalkeeper Tim Howard.

3. Experience - We have done this before

The famous 2005 season in which we pipped Liverpool to fourth spot, has given us a steely resolve and a blueprint for how to finish above them. This season's chase for fourth is likely to be just as closely fought, and with the Toffees finishing above Liverpool by a mere three points in 2005, that experience will come in very handy.

4.Fixtures

A quick look at the fixtures tells us that Liverpool have three difficult games coming up very soon, with the Merseyside derby sanwiched between visits to Old Trafford and the Emirates.This could lead to Everton building up a healthy lead over the Anfield side and although Everton have some tough games towards the end of their fixture list, they crucially have more home games remaining – five at Goodison compared to Liverpool's four at Anfield.

5. Yakubu

The Nigerian man mountain is performing like a reliable can of Ronseal, doing "exactly what it says on the tin" and scoring a very helpful 12 goals in 18 league games. Yakubu's scoring talents are the perfect counterweight to Everton's solid defence, one in which Phil Jagielka has been playing so well that Moyes has been forced to shunt the magnificent Joleon Lescott over to left back.