Aston Villa manager Alex McLeish has spoken of his delight that modern technology allows him to show his players mistakes they’ve made from dozens of different angles, all in amazing high definition.

The positivity surrounding Villa’s unbeaten start to the season has been tempered by recent home draws against Wolverhampton Wanderers and Newcastle United, with the Villa Park faithful still waiting to see if their worst fears will be realised after a summer which went about as smoothly as a John Carew workout video.

However, McLeish believes that taping Fabian Delph’s eyelids up and forcing him to watch back his every misplaced pass could yet pay dividends.

He said, in a ‘back in my day’ sort of way: “When Alex Ferguson told me the centre-forward was coming off me* all day I would have to take his word for that.

“It was probably only the once in the game but you didn’t get the evidence in those days. Now you can show them the good and the bad.

“I can show them on video and ask ‘could you do better there’? It’s not rocket science, we have so much data at our disposal.”

Rumours that Charles N’Zogbia has been told to spend the week at home with a pair of 3D glasses and a skip full of popcorn are yet to be substantiated.

(* That’s what she said.)