IT’S ONE of the game’s hoary old chestnuts: ‘when it comes to derby matches, you can throw the form book out of the window’.

Really? Liverpool’s win at Goodison on Saturday was their seventh in nine visits; Everton have won two out of the last 18 games at either ground.

When Manchester City beat United at Hogwarts last February, it was their first victory on that ground for nearly 34 years.

Sounds to me like, far from being irrelevant, the form book is a pretty good guide on these occasions.

You couldn’t find many Evertonians disputing that either before or after last Saturday’s game. Even David Moyes seemed resigned to the inevitable, sending out his team at home in a very negative 4-5-1 formation with apparent instructions to lamp the ball forward in the general direction of Yakubu at every opportunity.

Feed the Yak, and he will fall over with the sheer effort of it. While playing nowhere near our best (I hope), the Reds won at a canter, leaving Moyes to seek refuge in his usual smokescreen around refereeing decisions, and implying that the only difference between the sides is the money Benitez has had at his disposal.

Now I have to admit to a sneaking admiration for Moyes, but he does himself no favours when it comes to his sour post- derby match comments. He’d do better to dwell on the shortcomings of his own side, and the part he played by revealing his fear of the Reds with his timid selection.

While I’m here, can any of my Evertonian chums tell me why Mikel Arteta is so revered? I’ve never seen him play well against us (okay, I don’t watch that many Everton games) and he never seems to get a sniff of a call-up to the Spanish squad.