Now everyone knows that the relations between both sets of supporters are not what they once where – the whole subject gets rehashed at least twice a season after all – and Evertonians have to shoulder their share of the responsibility for that.

And if Blues are involved in unpleasant incidents, against Liverpool or anyone else, then they deserve to be criticised.

However, it really is hard to blame Everton supporters for getting just a bit prickly when they are the subject of what is starting to feel like a smear campaign from certain sections of the media, seemingly intent on deflecting as much attention as possible away from the high-profile Gerrard.

Going back to the FA Cup draw, the fates do seem to be conspiring to make David Moyes’s bid to improve on his record in the competition as difficult as possible.

He must be heartily sick of being reminded of Shrewsbury and Oldham whenever we approach third round ties, and to his credit he sent out more or less his strongest side who showed exactly the right sort of attitude in overcoming Macclesfield Town on a horrible pitch at Moss Rose.

To get the league leaders straight out of the bag the next day seemed a little bit harsh to say the least.

We’d like to think that Rafael Benitez and his team were slightly deflated too, at the prospect of facing Everton as opposed to one of the many lower and non-League sides they could have drawn.

We’d also hope that we are better prepared to take them on in a couple of weeks than we were for the Goodison derby back in September.

That was an embarrassing afternoon, with Everton seemingly in turmoil and Liverpool almost shocked at how easy it was to take all three points.

We seem to have got our act together since then though, and away from home we have been a genuine force to contend with.

So while we are hardly overjoyed with the draw, and we are clearly the underdogs, write us off at your peril.