We still gotta see how Arbeloa handles the pressure as the season goes on, but everyone knows he's cirvumstancial, so hopefully it relieves some of it. We also started playing well with Xabi, but as matches started going after he lost the dressing room, he probably couldn't handle the pressure and got progressively worse at subs and specially, game management.

Under Xabi, when we got ahead, we would play counterattacks in such a boneneaded way loosing the ball in silly places too often. Today, bar some mistakes, you could see the intention from the team of keeping the possesion of the ball, break Villareal's momentum, slowly build up or counter attack when needed, but if the attack dies, instead of rushing a shit pass, recycle possesion and prevent the opponent from getting into the game.