The Villa win – having not played that well, and right at the death, and thanks to a header (rare), and from a corner (plentiful but rarely fruitful) – was a deeply satisfying result. It's a game we may well previously have lost, but coming after the loss at Man City, it showed tremendous bouncebackability.

By Chris Wright

In which, while turning out to welcome the Spanish national side to his country, a small Costa Rican nipper gets steadily more and more excited as his favourite players roll off the team coach up until the point that he almost blows-out Carles Puyol's eardrums with a mighty, high-pitched squeal.

With a pony tailed Andy Carroll scoring an impressive double in last night's Liverpool game vs. Manchester City, not to mention the 'positive' response that the somewhat cute photo of Edinson Cavani prompted in yesterday's 'View From The Sidelines' post, we figured it is time to tackle the question of long hair on 'ballers once and for all.

Did you see him? Did you? Him with his regal mane of golden hair and artistically tattooed limbs sashaying into the stadium with his young one and blessing us all with his presence for ninety minutes. He watched on, he talked to his son, he ate peanuts, he applauded politely, he ‘ooh'ed, he ‘aah'ed, he furiously picked his nose and the merciful cameras didn't miss one bit of it.