DID you see the clip of Emi Martinez telling Cristiano Ronaldo to take Manchester United’s penalty?

If you haven’t, please do. A wonderful moment of gamesmanship. Regular listeners to my BBC podcast might be aware of a more colourful way of phrasing such antics! Martinez basically got into the head of Bruno Fernandes. It is very clever. He is saying you are not good enough to take this responsibility. Penalties were the elephant in the room at United when Ronaldo joined. Everybody was wondering what would happen when United were awarded one. If Ronaldo stepped up then fine — it’s Ronaldo — but Fernandes has gone: No, I’m the man here. That obviously weighed heavily on his mind. Martinez tapped into all of that brilliantly. He gave himself a little advantage, the kick landed halfway up the Stretford End and Aston Villa went back to Birmingham with a memorable victory.