Carra: Fear drives us on

Jamie Carragher looked ahead to Saturday's Merseyside derby clash with Everton at Anfield and declared: 'This is the big one.'

The Blues make the short journey across Stanley Park this weekend, with the Reds vice-captain insisting nothing gets his heart pumping like the fear of losing an encounter with our neighbours.

Everton have not won in front of the Kop since 1999, while the Noughties saw Liverpool lose just two of the 20 league fixtures between the two sides, recording 11 victories in the process.

It's a run derby veteran Carragher is determined to extend well into the new decade.

"My feelings haven't changed one bit," said the centre-back. "There is always that little bit of extra anxiety, which comes from the fear of losing. You talk about results being more important than performances but, ideally, you want to put the two together.

"But when you think over the last decade, we've probably had our best ever run of results against Everton. Normally in the past whenever Everton have beaten Liverpool, the accusation was that they wanted it a little bit more.

"So I'm glad in the last decade we have turned that around and hopefully we'll be able to keep the run going into the next decade. The important thing is that you could never accuse us of lacking desire in these games."

The two sides last crossed swords in November when goals from Javier Mascherano and Dirk Kuyt secured a 2-0 win for Liverpool at Goodison Park.

Everton are unbeaten in nine league matches since that afternoon - a statistic that emphasises the quality of the Reds result against David Moyes men, according to Carragher.

But with key matches against Arsenal and Manchester City to follow hot on the heels of the derby, Anfield's No.23 is seeking a similar result this time around.

He said: "It was a great result in November. I don't think we played particularly well and Everton had a decent game, to be fair. But we still managed to go to Goodison, one of the toughest places in the country, not play well and win 2-0.

"You can say we were poor, that we never did this or that, but it just shows what is expected from Liverpool. We didn't play well on the patch of our biggest rivals and got criticised for winning yet Everton got praised, to a certain extent, for losing.

"Since then they have got back in to form and you always know with a David Moyes team that they are going to fight. Everton will always do well under David Moyes. I think they will fight for a European place once again.

"We have got three massive games. It would be great if we could win all three. Doing that will be very difficult but that is what our aim is; the first one just has to take care of itself.

"For me, the derby is always the biggest game of the season and this is no different. We've just got to make sure that we get three points and then we can start thinking about the games that follow on, as the race for the top four is getting pretty tight now.

"It changes from week to week and with teams around us dropping points, we've got to make sure we are in a position to take advantage. But we can't look too far ahead as we have got a big enough game of our own to deal with."

While acknowledging Liverpool have yet to hit top form this season, Carragher knows a victory over the Blues can provide the perfect platform for the remainder of the campaign as Rafael Benitez's side continue their quest to secure a top four finish.

"We have got a lot of players with experience, who have the mentality of playing in big games," he said.

"You don't let the occasion get to you too much; this is another massive one and hopefully it will be the same, to take us where we want to be."

He added: "This is the one game you would take any kind of performance, as long as you get the win."