At my sister’s I also took advantage of access to Sky Sports to watch Villa draw entertainingly away at Blackburn. These are two Premiership teams so ordinary their shirts are sponsored by firms you’ve never heard of, yet the speed and quality of the play was so much better than, say, ten years ago, that it’s scarcely recognisable as English football. Modern Premiership first-teamers are super-fit and the accuracy of their passing has improved to the extent that every loss of possession seems worthy of a groan from the armchair. (I have to admit there were still too many of those.) Christ, what do Arsenal / Man United games look like these days?