YOU can choose your friends but not your neighbours, although if money’s no object you can live wherever you want.

Unfortunately for both Everton and Liverpool it’s a little bit tight at present and so thoughts of moving into that dream home have been put on the back-burner.

True to form, the 213th Merseyside derby provided the usual neighbourly disputes.

Two red cards, seven yellows, a black eye and a trip to the hospital.

Love thy neighbour? Not a chance.

It hasn’t become the most volatile fixture in Premier League history for nothing.

The dismissals of Sotirios Kyrgiakos and Steven Pienaar made it 18 red cards in the last 36 meetings between the Mersey rivals.

Meanwhile, off the pitch, there’s more chance of Liverpool’s co-owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks seeing eye-to-eye than David Moyes and Rafael Benitez.

And so it came as little surprise when the opposing managers offered different takes on the first-half dismissal of Kyrgiakos.

“Two footed tackle, both feet off the ground,” was Moyes’ blunt assessment.