Everton midfielder Ross Barkley believes his side can finish above city rivals Liverpool this season.

The Toffees are currently seventh in the Premier League standings, eight points behind their Merseyside rivals, but they can reduce that gap by securing all three points against bottom-of-the-table Sunderland at Goodison Park on Saturday.

Ronald Koeman’s men are unbeaten in their last eight top-flight games, with their last defeat coming against Liverpool in December, and Barkley sees no reason why his side cannot finish above the Reds come the end of the campaign.

“I’d like that [to finish above Liverpool],” Barkley told Sky Sports.

“I’m an Everton supporter so to see us finish higher than them would be great.”

Barkley, who has scored four goals and provided a further five assists in the league this season, knows it will be tough to overhaul Jurgen Klopp’s men in the standings, but he insists the Toffees are happy to take things one game at a time.

He added: “But they’re higher than us at the minute and we’ve obviously got to focus on one game at a time and see where we finish at the end of the season.”

Everton are priced at 1.40 to extend their unbeaten league run to nine matches on Saturday, while Sunderland are available at 8.00 to secure all three points and the draw is on offer at 5.00.