By the time David Moyes waved goodbye to Goodison Park first time around, he’d steered Everton to back-to-back finishes over Liverpool but even though the gap between the neighbours has arguably never been wider, the Blues boss is thinking big again – so long as he can keep his side afloat this season.

After over 130 years of Merseyside Derby combat, the table-topping Reds will cross Stanley Park for the last time tonight.

Any subsequent meetings will be two miles down the road in Vauxhall with the first game at the new Everton Stadium taking place in just five days’ time as the club’s Under-18s side entertain their Wigan Athletic counterparts in an inaugural test event in front of 10,000 spectators at the 52,888 capacity venue.

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Arne Slot’s side are hot favourites to be reigning champions come the 2025/26 season but Evertonians are just praying that they get to host them again next term in the Premier League after picking up just 17 points in the first half of the campaign under Sean Dyche.

A hat-trick of consecutive Premier League wins under Moyes has eased their plight and opened up a nine-point cushion between themselves and the relegation zone, but nobody associated with the Blues wants to be losing this historic fixture, no matter how impressive their neighbours’ form has been. But despite a first Goodison win for Everton in 12-and-a-half years last time out in this fixture, Moyes is realistic about the magnitude of what awaits his side.

He said: “The task is a big one, let’s not kid ourselves on, but it’s a one-off game, especially this one.

“There is a gulf between the teams in quality at the moment and obviously that is shown in the league position as well. That’s where you have to find a way to bridge the gulf on the night and bring it much closer.

“I don’t think Evertonians want me to kid them on or tell them any lies. They’ve probably gone through the worst times they’ve felt as a club.

“The reason why I’m saying it to them is that we had to fight unbelievably hard for 11 years (in his first spell) to get into a situation where we were more competitive against Liverpool. Year-on-year we were getting more competitive.

“It took a long time to build that up, now the gulf has come back. There was a gulf there when I first took over but I think at the moment it is back to that level again, if not further."

Two decades ago, in 2004/05, Moyes steered Everton to fourth place in the Premier League – their highest ever position in the competition – but even then, Liverpool, who came fifth, lifted the Champions League. Reflecting on situation, the Scot said: “It sounds like a big achievement and I feel it is a big achievement for this club to do that because Liverpool were always challenging for trophies, or around it, so if we were finishing above them it meant we had done something right.

“Unfortunately, we are in a city that has got a very good other team, Liverpool, and we have to compete against them most of the time. Quite often they’ve spent more, been able to do so, and those things alone make it very difficult to be always competitive.

“Sometimes you can’t just say, ‘Oh here’s a derby with two teams going at it’. Sometimes you have to say one has got a much bigger budget and availability to buy more players than we have.

“I’m not an expert on PSR. This football club spent lots and lots of money to try and get there and it didn’t necessarily work.

“We have tried to be that club here and we’ve tried to challenge the big boys by our spending but, looking back, there probably would have been a slightly better way to do it.”

Moyes referenced the competitive nature of derbies first time around against the likes of Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher but while the Merseyside Derby has produced more red cards than any other Premier League fixture, he acknowledged that the game is somewhat different now, if not any less competitive. The 61-year-old said: “Football has changed over the years. We see other derbies, Old Firm or Manchester Derby… but this one being the last one at Goodison, does that make it rougher or tougher? I don’t think so.

“We’ve got a derby game which has been going on for 130 years, all at Goodison or Anfield. It is incredible now that it is coming to an end at this stadium but the stadium has played a big part in it building up to being a more explosive derby.

“At the end of it, you get three points. We’ve got to try and keep that.

“The process of trying to win and trying to get a result. It’s just a game, another game, but I will tell the players about what it means to the supporters.

“Yet if I have to tell them that (the players), you would be questioning where they are in their footballing world. Especially now and what we are talking about the last one at Goodison.

“It is a big thing. Everyone here is aware of trying to finish at Goodison in a great place, all the staff around the place are trying to make the last few games here special.

“If you look at clubs going into new stadiums, it can be quite different. That is something to navigate in the future.

“When I first came into the club, years ago, they were always talking about where the new site for the stadium will be, was there a chance of getting one built. It is actually here now and it is great for both clubs in this city with bigger crowds at the new stadium while Anfield has been redeveloped so it is giving people more opportunity to come here.”

So long as Moyes can steer Everton to safety this season, with The Friedkin Group’s takeover, multiple players out of contract this summer and the move to the new stadium, there is a major opportunity for the Blues to revamp their squad. It’s a prospect that has got the Glaswegian, who led West Ham United to their first trophy since 1980 less than two years ago, into thinking big once more.

Moyes said: “I am hoping that we can start building again. Every time, you are anxious to get over that first bit.

“When I first came over, I remember thinking, ‘My goodness we are going to stay up,’ beating Fulham and Derby early on. We stayed up then and we had a very good year after that.

“I have to hope somewhere that we can try to plan it to be the same. At West Ham, we had to stay up and in the first year I was asking, ‘how am I going to do this?’.

“Then the next year we ended up getting into Europe. I don’t know if it is dreaming, but the idea is to try to have that as my goal.

“How can I do it? If we are fortunate to get ourselves of this position and stay in the Premier League, then we have to try to target getting into a European position if we can. If we pull up short, so be it, but we will try.”