LONDON — Only the most blinkered and biased of Everton and Liverpool fans would have believed their team could win the Premier League this season.
Yet only the most pessimistic, glass-half-empty followers could have thought the might of Merseyside would be humiliated by Brentford and Northampton, respectively, in the League Cup.
Everton was beaten by a side 17th in League One and Liverpool by a team 69 places below it near the foot of League Two. It is a long time since the city's big two have been in such dire straits and optimism is in as short supply as victories.