This is the best time to win at Anfield and we’re positive. We are ready for them. We have no fear

IF THERE is one fixture in the calendar that is in no need of an extra spark the Merseyside derby is it, with the occasion having more red cards in its history than any other Premier League match.

But just in case the temperature threatens to dip at lunchtime today, Everton goalkeeper Joel Robles has lobbed an incendiary into the mix by insisting the Blues go to Anfield intent on inflicting maximum pain.

“We need to kill them, that’s it,” he said in a no-holds barred assessment of the job in hand. “This is the best time to play Liverpool and the best time to win at Anfield and we’re positive. We have no fear.”

Plenty of Everton fans will not share their Spanish goalkeeper’s confidence, given a history littered with similarly hopeful but unsuccessful forays across Stanley Park. Since Kevin Campbell scored the winner in a badtempered match marred by three red cards in 1999, Everton have made the trip 16 times and not once emerged with a win.

Indeed in the 34 derbies since they were last able to celebrate with that victory at Anfield they have won just three (in 2004, 2006 and 2010) and all of them on their home turf at Goodison. Robles’ experience of the fixture is limited to just two occasions and his only memory of a derby at Anfield came REPORTS last April when he was beaten four times in a match in which Ramiro Funes Mori was sent off.

“Obviously that was a disappointing day,” he said. “My lowest point? Yes, and after the game the dressing room was so down. But now we need to think about the present – the past doesn’t matter.”

Everton enter Anfield on an excellent run with just one defeat in their past 12 matches and with the chance to narrow the gap on Liverpool in fourth place to three points. Manager Ronald Koeman has been telling his players this week that while Liverpool look to have steadied the ship after a poor start to 2017, which has featured just three wins in their past 10 league matches, they have not regained their convincing swagger of earlier in the season.

The Everton boss had his own confidence severely tested with injuries from the international break, losing Seamus Coleman to a broken leg, Funes Mori for the season and James McCarthy to another hamstring niggle. But crucially, he believes his side will carry no baggage into the tie, and will also stress they must let Liverpool know they have been in a physical battle.

Robles drew parallels between Merseyside and Madrid, insisting such positive thinking helped his old club Atletico overturn a similarly dismal record against their neighbours Real in 2013 when they finally beat them for the first time since 1999 at the 24th attempt. “When Atletico went aggressive and thought positive they had more chance to win,” he said. “That has been the message from the manager this week.”

Having finally ousted Tim Howard from the No1 spot by the end of last season, Robles admitted he was dismayed that one of Koeman’s first acts as manager was to buy a goalkeeper, with Maarten Stekelenburg arriving as his first choice.

“I was disappointed and it was a really difficult moment but I realised I needed to change my mentality, train well and be ready for the moment when the situation changes,” he said.

That moment arrived in the derby at Goodison in December when Stekelenburg was injured in a collision with Leighton Baines just after the hour and Koeman called for Robles. He performed well up to a point, but the fact he was beaten late by a combination