Allardyce blames bad luck for Merseyside Derby draw.

This was always the derby game that neither team really wanted to play, and with the torrential downpour drenching Goodison Park for most of the time, it was not surprising that this became the first ever Merseyside Derby in Premier League history to end without a single card being shown.

Everton looked up for it in the first quarter of an hour, but quickly faded after that as Liverpool gained a foothold in the game for the next hour, before the Blues’ substitutes made it interesting again for the home fans for the last few minutes again.

After the referee blew his final whistle at 0-0, manager Sam Allardyce had this to say to Sky Sports.

“I think that in the end when you finish the game as strongly as that and put Liverpool under pressure, you can say we’re unlucky, particularly the Tosun Cenk header and Dominic Solanke’s chance.

”The basis of our performance was nullifying Liverpool’s attack to create chances but when you miss those chances, it really is disappointing because if they had gone the other way, we could’ve been looking at a different game.

”I think we got apprehensive about chasing the ball too much and then giving it away too easy. In the second half, we played much better, we took it to Liverpool and ran at them to create chance after chance.”

Wayne Rooney was the first substitute in the second half and was visibly unhappy about being taken off, reacting quite aggressively as he trudged off.

“Dominating the last 15 minutes could have given us the opportunity to win it but we needed more legs. That’s the way the game goes.

“Wayne’s bound to be disappointed to be brought off in a Merseyside derby but I make the decisions and I thought we did the right thing to make those changes to give us a better chance.”