My cup overfloweth, never mind half full! 6 point from 2 games, perfect form, no goals conceded, what more could you want?
There are areas for improvment, obviously. First half we dominated so much that it was disappointing not to get the second goal. A certain Uruguayan springs to mind. Aspas still settling to the English game and Coutinho playing out wide - all things that time should mend.
We played an obvious strategy in terms of giving them all the possession they wanted in their own half and pressing when they crossed the line. First half it was effective, but it made me wonder - by doing this, we ensure that when they do get the ball past one of our players, it's a fairly short sprint to the goal, and Villa have some pacy forwards. Second half this seemed to cause us problems.
Mignolet impressed with some lovely saves, my concern about him has always been his distribution, and while it wasn't terrible, I did feel that second half a lot of the problems we had stemmed from our inability to keep the ball, and much of this was due to Mignolet spraying long balls over the halfway line. It wasn't like David Seaman for England, when the ball would cycle endlessly into the box to be hoofed up and allow another attack to build, but there were times when I felt Reina would have found a man in space and instead it was pressured or went into touch, providing another attacking chance rather than an opportunity to regroup. Again, we can only expect improvement, and we have been spoiled by the best in the world for the last eight years there.
Interesting that Cissokho was introduced to add to the midfield, by then Coutinho and Henderson had been largely shut out of the game and it was all about the back line, Lucas and Gerrard, all of whom were virtually flawless.
I was surprised by the dominance of the first half, I'm actually a bit of a fan of Lambert, and Villa do have some very good players, they could do very well this season, and if they can find a way to make the best of their talents at home Villa Park is going to be a banana skin for a few contenders this year.
Penalty? It was a 50/50, don't think they'd have much to complain about if it was given - I don't think it matters if the keeper touches the ball if he brings down the player, didn't that rule go out with the ark?