How Bolton Beat Villa

There is no doubt whatsoever that Sam Allardyce has done a wonderful job at The Reebok on a very small budget and the result is a team that has not merely survived and become established in the top division, but prospered. But for all that it is a team cast in the mould of a manager who made his name as a central defender no-one was prepared to argue with. A team whose characteristics do not endear it to the purist – a gritty, determined, aggressive, no nonsense, frill-free outfit whose members have no compunction about clattering the opposition and in many cases are extremely well qualified to do so.

Meite, for instance is a centre back of considerable bulk and very little style. Faye is also cast in the ‘terminator’ mould. Kevin Davies, a player who sometimes gives the impression that he has almost forgotten what it is to be a striker and cruises the field like a heavyweight prize fighter in search of a scrap, has reputedly committed more fouls than anyone in the division.

The result is a unit which has carved out a reputation for being extremely difficult to beat, but for all the class of Anelka, the cunning of Diouf and the skill of Campo, it remains a predominantly unlovely unit which makes many people wonder whether its rugged characteristics are what the English Premiership should really be about – even if its strengths allow the side that Sam made to steal from superior teams victories which are so outrageous they seem like a mugging.