OPEN your window and, listen carefully enough, you can hear it. A familiar, faint thud that only ever happens at this time of year.

Yes, it’s the sound of form-books being thrown out of the window as the city prepares for the greatest parochial spat since the last one.

But are recent performances and the league table completely irrelevant when it comes to forecasting the Merseyside derby?

The evidence of the last few years would suggest not. And it’s why Saturday’s Goodison scrap should be prove an intriguing encounter with both teams evenly balanced.

Everton and Liverpool have made, on the face of it, encouraging starts to the season. But neither is without obvious shortcomings, as David Moyes and Kenny Dalglish continue tentatively rotating their resources in search of a consistently winning formula.

Certainly, Moyes won’t – and perhaps daren’t – park the bus again as he did to ultimately no avail at Manchester City last Saturday.

But it’s clear the Everton manager doesn’t quite fully trust the attackers at his disposal, be it the youth of Apostolos Vellios, the unknown quantity of Denis Straqualursi or the temperamental talent of Louis Saha.

Saha is the most obvious inclusion, but Moyes may be tempted to stick with makeshift forwards Marouane Fellaini and Tim Cahill against a Liverpool defence that is struggling for clean sheets.

Cahill’s fitness is crucial. The Australian loves these fixtures and helps fire the Goodison crowd, and like many of his team-mates is a veteran of numerous derbies.

This could be to Everton’s advantage, with Liverpool’s line-up possibly containing as many as six derby debutants.