FUNNILY enough, Barack Obama failed to mention the derby result in his inaugural speech, but if the new President of the United States wants an example of how to deal with difficult circumstances and financial uncertainties, he could do a lot worse than studying David Moyes’s Everton.

Because on Monday night, the Blues took their frighteningly small squad across Stanley Park and proved themselves the equals of a expensively assembled Liverpool team who are considered, by their manager at least, to be genuine title contenders.

In now familiar fashion, disgruntled Liverpudlians have been talking about their Blue counterparts’ celebrations being somehow unseemly, but it was the Kopites who streamed out of Anfield, before the final whistle, with the air of beaten cup finalists.

And presumably a number of ‘Rafatollah’ portraits were defaced when they got home, judging by the outpourings of angst concerning the Liverpool manager’s decisions to remove more than £45million-worth of strikers before the final whistle.

The fact is though, even if Liverpool did enjoy more of the possession after the break, they hardly created any chances, even with Fernando Torres and Robbie Keane on the pitch.

Everton sat a bit deeper as they tired, but in terms of sieges it was hardly Stalingrad, and in a departure from previous visits over there, Everton maintained a threat of their own throughout.

Indeed, Steven Gerrard’s superbly taken goal only came in the aftermath of an enterprising attack by Victor Anichebe.

Along with Leighton Baines, the Nigerian striker was an absolute revelation on the night.