The puzzling thing is that, along the way to collecting a history degree from Princeton University Jesse Marsch produced a 117-page dissertation entitled: “Shaken, not stirred; an evaluation of earthquake awareness in California.” Football is not academia but, even so, the Leeds manager might have been expected to be a little more conscious of the disciplinary faultlines which, quite apart from preventing his side from displaying their true abilities on the pitch, threatened to produce a major tremor on Sunday.
In the end an often ill-tempered contest with two feisty yet inherently fragile teams – and like Marsch, Aston Villa’s Steven Gerrard’s tenure seems on the cusp between impending calamity and mid-table stability – concluded with just the one sending off, namely Leeds’ Luis Sinisterra for a ludicrous second bookable offence.
There were though were moments when a game, sporadically illuminated by Philippe Coutinho’s skill, threatened to descend into a full-on brawl.
If Villa played their part in that, Leeds allowed themselves to be wound up far too easily; aggression may be a big, necessary part of their pressing game but they need to be much better at controlling it.