Dig your brand new bendy Villa

I knew Martin O'Neill more by reputation than anything else before he came to Villa.

I'm sure most of us were in the same boat; we knew about the record, the successes, and we'd seen the professorial interventions on various BBC outings - chiding Shearer and Hansen for their sometime flippancy and getting to the heart of a game's tactical patterns.

Sure, I was as ecstatic as the next man in welcoming O'Neill to Villa Park but I knew that half of that was a huge, subconscious, post-O'Leary sigh of relief, and I was intrigued to see how this student of the game would actually apply his tactical wit to the task of bringing shape and solidity to the first team's tactical approach.

Especially as the media were long on negative adjectives in the run up to the season in describing the squad; "thin", "threadbare" and "creaking" were all used with merry abandon.

I have been immensely impressed with what I have seen so far. I'm not surprised that average players have been turned into excellent players - above all Gavin McCann and Olof Mellberg - O'Neill is renowned for getting 110% out of individuals quickly.

What astonishes me is the speed with which O'Neill and his coaches, Robertson and Walford, have worked with what they've got and developed a tactical shape which is both hard to break down and poses real attacking threat.

The side lines up as a 4-3-3, with Gabby and Luke More threatening with real pace on the flanks. When the opposition has the ball, Gabby and Luke drop deeper to turn the midfield into a five-manner, covering Hughes and Samuel to counter any threat from the opposition wingers.

It happens fast, and it happens smoothly. And I love it. Sure, Gabby and Luke have to work their socks off to make it happen - but that's no bad thing.

Villa's new bendiness is working wonders. And I'm beginning to think that MON might just be the tactical genius he was cracked up to be.