All quiet on the north-western front for Benitez

A derby triumph normally sparks days of callous gloating, whilst the tedious internecine internet nonsense over the manager’s future would have got nerve ends a-shrieking.

But an interesting truce developed. It was almost as if the partisans knew the Everton performance was not entirely worthy of celebration, whilst the witch hunters knew they’d sound simple if they carried on bleating after defeating the sock robbers.

So everyone silently simmered for vastly different reasons. There was no football match in no man’s land, maybe there will be at Christmas?