It was on this day in 2007 that Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez branded neighbours Everton “a small club”. But while the Spaniard, a future Goodison gaffer himself, would flop across Stanley Park, David Moyes continues to show that he knows what it takes to get the best out of the Blues.

Having thrashed Benitez’s Liverpool 3-0 in the corresponding fixture the previous September, Moyes’ men crossed Stanley Park on February 3, 2007, and prevented their neighbours from scoring again as they were good value for their goalless draw to take four points off the Reds for the campaign.

As a result, Benitez cut a frustrated figure. He didn’t go straight into using the ‘s-word’ but after several questions from Sky Sports, he would utter that petulant phrase that would make his later short but not-so-sweet stint at Everton all that more uncomfortable for a former Kop Idol. Here is a full transcript of the build-up to his unfortunate turn of phrase...

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Rafa, how disappointed are you?

“We are really disappointed, no? Because I think that you could see one team that wanted to win, and another one that didn’t want to lose anything else. We were trying to keep going, keep going forward, keep creating chances if we could but it was really difficult because they were defending and playing maybe counter attack, no?”

You did have a lot of possession, you had three strikers out there on the pitch but are you disappointed with the amount of clear-cut chances you created?

“It is not easy when you have maybe eight players behind the ball, narrow, and deep. You cannot create very clear chances, it’s just keep going, sustain the attack and be there.”

Can you understand though why Everton came here and defended so heartedly?

“Yeah, it’s how they want to win points, no? You cannot say anything about this, it’s just the situation that we could see on the pitch.”

It’s not new for your team though is it? A lot of teams come here to Anfield and defend. Why didn’t you manage to break them down today?

“We were trying but you know when you play with small clubs always, it’s difficult, they play deep and they tried to do the same.”

Fast-forward to the summer of 2021 and following Everton owner Farhad Moshiri going against the advice of chairman Bill Kenwright and director of football Marcel Brands by making the most controversial appointment in the history of the most passionate city in English football and we had the surreal situation of Benitez conducting his first press conference as Blues boss, decked out in his Everton tracksuit complete with RB initials.

To makers matters even weirder, ongoing coronavirus restrictions ensured the questions came in remotely via Zoom calls rather than having journalists in the room with him at Finch Farm.

Again it was Sky Sports who put the Madrid man on the spot with Vinny O’Connor asking: “It was highlighted after a Merseyside Derby, you referred to Everton as a “small club.” How do you feel about those comments now and what pressure does that and your history put on you in this role as Everton manager?.”

Doing more back peddling than rewinding footage of Chris Froome winning the Tour de France, Benitez insisted: “I said before that it depends it depends on the context. It’s a long time ago, you are fighting for your club and that is what I will do now. If you are the manager, you have to defend your club in any context. In this case, I will fight for Everton. I will try to do my best in every single game and I will try to compete against anyone. I am really pleased that this club is getting bigger and bigger and I am happy with the idea that we can challenge and we can compete and I will fight for that.”

Everton would finish that season with the joint lowest equivalent points total in their history at the time, but not before Benitez had been axed on January 16, after a 2-1 defeat at bottom club Norwich City, who had lost their previous six games in the competition without scoring. Indeed, it was what Kenwright would later describe as an “unacceptably disappointing” run of form that cost the Spaniard his job – including a 4-1 home thrashing to Liverpool when visiting fans chanted his name – as he lost nine of his final 12 Premier League matches in charge.

Although it was almost 23 years on from when he was first appointed and got under the skin of Kopites by christening Everton “The People’s Club” – and even lengthier stretch of time than the 14 years between Benitez’s “small club” jibe and his own hiring by the Blues – Moyes is back showing that he knows better than any other manager in the business how this venerable but, of late, vulnerable football institution ticks. Like Benitez, Herr Fabian of Brighton & Hove Albion was petulant when his own side were unable to break down a Moyes Everton team.

The Premier League’s youngest manager, and the first to be younger than the competition itself, the German would have been just 13 in 2007 when Benitez made his remarks, but he acted like he was still a moody youth still disrespectful of his elders when the Blues beat his Seagulls side 1-0 in Moyes’ first away game back.

When a reporter suggested the 61-year-old might have used the wisdom of his experience to secure the three points, Hurzeler snorted and muttered: “Oh my...” before snapping back: “You can write it like this, but that was not the key for this game.”

I wonder whether the 31-year-old's arrogance has abated after Saturday’s 7-0 shellacking at Nottingham Forest? In contrast, Moyes, now the English top-flight’s elder statesman, continues to ooze class.

Demonstrating he can get a tune out of the Blues and harness the power of Goodison Park in a manner than predecessor Sean Dyche often struggled to do, following the 4-0 thrashing of Leicester City, he explained his role with the senior club in the city while simultaneously giving a nod to the neighbours who he will face in the final Premier League Merseyside Derby at Goodison Park later this month. Moyes said: “I think in the city, there's a huge rival in the city who are very, very good. I think we need someone to fight a little bit.

“We can say, we're going to stand up for ourselves, we're going to try and be competitive and we'll try and challenge. We don't have all the same things that they've got.

“So we have to find our way of doing it. If there’s one thing we do need, we need the supporters and we need the players to work together to give us the best chance of success.”