United benefit from goalless draw

If nothing else one of the less meritorious Merseyside derby meetings of recent years has finally ended what few arguments still rage on about - the destiny of this season's Premiership title.

At the end of a night of many bruises but no goals, Liverpool's failure to record a first win at Goodison Park in a decade presented Manchester United with their first opportunity to confirm the inevitable. If United can defeat Southampton at the Dell this afternoon, yet another championship will be theirs.

In the not-too-distant future it may well be that it is Liverpool who will emerge as the club most likely to disturb English football's balance of power. But not just yet. Liverpool could have won, they could have lost. It was as it always is when these two representatives of a divided city meet - extremely tight.

Liverpool could even have lost. In the final seconds their goalkeeper Sander Westerveld, in trying to clear the ball, saw it cannon off the retreating Don Hutchison and go into the visitors' goal. Confusion reigned but the referee Graham Poll insisted that he had blown as Westerveld kicked the ball towards Hutchison who had his back to goal.

Poll, explaining his version of the incident, said: "It was a freekick and basically I looked at my watch and I thought, as he (Sander Westerveld) kicked it out, "it's the last kick of the game - it's finished". My time was up, we'd added the correct amount of time on for stoppages.

"As he (Westerveld) kicked I had then blown and you've seen what's happened. It hit the player (Hutchison) - who wasn't anywhere near 10 yards away, so it's (the controversy) largely irrelevant.

"But, just to clear it up, I actually blew for time when he kicked the ball and it (the game) finished," he told Sky Sports.

"Unfortunately the players got a bit excited and confused, as they do in derby matches."

It is late in the day but as the season's end beckons, Gerard Houllier finally has a fully fit squad available to him. One can only wonder what the Premiership table might look like this morning had Liverpool's resources not been so badly stretched.

But, playing the numbers game can be problematical and despite having Rigobert Song and Titi Camara away on international duty, Houllier could not even find a place amongst his substitutes for Jamie Redknapp, the man who, arguably, has the least to gain from the emptying of the Anfield treatment-room.

The veneer of stylised culture which Houllier has applied to his remodelled team was always likely to be chipped away by some good old fashioned rough and tumble football. Occasionally when flesh met flesh, when bone jarred bone, the ball was actually present but, perhaps, it was too much to ask from both teams for both good manners and fearsome commitment.

A pitch made treacherous by incessant rain suited Blue more than it did Red as Everton's current strength is their bullishness, their belligerence. If there was a little too much confusion in the main battleground of central midfield, the game was surprisingly open inside the respective penalty areas with both sides spurning inviting chances early on.

After Nick Barmby had been denied by Westerveld, Michael Owen should really have pushed Liverpool in front on 12 minutes after collecting Patrik Berger's intelligent pass. But, as Kevin Keegan gazed down from the main stand, Owen was to fluff his lines, steering his shot much too close to the goalkeeper Paul Gerrard.

Having spent most of the first half falling over, Emile Heskey was withdrawn during the interval, paving the way for the return to arms of Robbie Fowler some four months after his last comeback from injury had ended in painful failure.

Predictably, Fowler's arrival had something of a cathartic effect on Owen and nine minutes into a second period of even fiercer tackles he was denied only by the athleticism of Gerrard who threw himself full length to his right to touch wide the cleanest of strikes.

At last - at long last - it did seem possible that enterprise would be met with its reward. Sadly, Mark Hughes did not feel inclined to concur and just before the hour he missed the most glorious of openings, pulling his shot wide of the far post with just an unprotected Westerveld to beat.

Everton: Gerrard, Dunne, Xavier, Weir, Unsworth, Pembridge (Ball 85), Collins, S Hughes, Barmby (Ward 89), M Hughes (Jeffers 81), Hutchison. Subs Not Used: Jevons, Simonsen.

Liverpool: Westerveld, Carragher, Henchoz, Hyypia, Matteo, Thompson (Heggem 56), Hamann, Gerrard, Berger, Owen, Heskey (Fowler 46). Subs Not Used: Smicer, Murphy, Nielsen. Booked: Thompson, Hamann, Henchoz.

Referee: G Poll (Tring).

PSV Eindhoven won their 15th Dutch league title last night after winning 3-1 at Twente Enschede. All of PSV's three goals came from young Dutch international Arnold Bruggink.