Leeds hold on for point against Aston Villa after Luis Sinisterra red card

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.

Ludwig Augustinsson was only six minutes into his Aston Villa debut when Stuart Attwell flourished a yellow card in his face. The Swedish left-back, on loan from Sevilla, was consequently left needing to mind his step after a late challenge on Rasmus Kristensen.

It was the 24th booking registered in only five Premier League meetings between two teams who do not particularly like each other and whose pre-season friendly in Australia turned acrimonious when the 16-year-old Leeds midfielder Archie Gray was stretchered off following a very poor John McGinn