(Manchester United News)
Control is a key strand to Louis van Gaal's footballing philosophy. The opposition cannot inflict any damage when you have the ball. It is one of the reasons why the Manchester United manager often refers to how many chances have been conceded when providing his post-match analysis.
Retaining possession has been his mantra and Saturday's 3-1 win over Aston Villa saw this strategy beautifully borne out with the Midlanders chasing shadows for much of the afternoon. Indeed, the figure of 76.37 per cent possession was the Reds' third-highest in the past 10 seasons of the Barclays Premier League.
The only higher percentages were recorded in November's comprehensive 3-0 success against Hull and, remarkably, the top statistic (76.67) came in a game United didn't win; a 2-2 home draw with Fulham on 9 February 2014 during David Moyes' tenure.
The general pattern for the campaign is one of improvement in ball possession. Van Gaal's masterplan was bound to take time to implement but examining the numbers indicates only one of the nine top-rated possession stats came before November.
United have exerted more authority than our opponents in all but four of the 31 league matches this term and only one of these was at Old Trafford - the narrow 2-1 win over Everton in early October. A month later, the figure of 48.01 per cent against Manchester City was actually pretty impressive considering Chris Smalling's sending-off left the Reds at a numerical disadvantage from the 39th minute.
The smash-and-grab raid at Southampton in December saw the hosts enjoy the better of proceedings at St Mary's, as the manager has acknowledged, and the lowest percentage by a huge margin (38.62%), came as part of an altogether different strategy that inflicted Arsenal's only home league defeat since the opening day of the 2013/14 season, when the Reds ran out 2-1 winners at the Emirates in November.
Hence, three points are not won on possession alone. However, it is encouraging to provide evidence that van Gaal's style of play is becoming more and more apparent over time. The Dutchman has only been at the helm since the summer but the average figure of 60.61 per cent for this term is the highest United have recorded in a campaign since Opta first logged the data, 10 seasons ago in 2005/06.
In five of those seasons, the Reds were crowned champions of England. Although that appears to be unlikely to happen in 2014/15, the building blocks are clearly being put in place to set up another real assault on the title. Sir Alex Ferguson's tactics were markedly different and joyously effective, but this new breed of football bodes well for a team obviously starting to carry out its manager's instructions on a regular basis. United are controlling matches and will hopefully soon be controlling our own destiny.
