The opening of the transfer speculation season sees us lined with another Brentford striker, Bryan Mbeumo

Then comes Bologna, the next step in an inevitable European conquest. Four changes, every one an international, shows the strength in depth we’ve suddenly got, and it’ll prove vital if we’re as successful this season as we should be. Bologna’s supporters weren’t allowed to do one of those big marches to the match because it’s too far from town and also because the traffic’s bad enough at that time of night without hundreds of Italians walking down the Expressway. They still made enough row inside the ground even if they had to contend with another pre-match display courtesy of the Villa’s special effects department.

They also had to contend with what might have been our best European display since we remembered where it was. The opposition might not have been up to the standard of the last European team we played but they were still dangerous enough, yet we were in charge from the off. It might have taken the best part of an hour to get the first goal, and there was a bit of luck attached to it when John McGinn’s free kick missed every stretched out boot and crept into the net, but it was well-deserved. As was Jhon Duran’s second, with the added bonus of him throwing a strop when he was substituted a minute later. They hit the bar at the end but no worry, another three points and top of the league.

We’re still top after Wednesday night’s matches, which is good going considering we were supposed to struggle in this competition. Then again, we weren’t going to qualify for it this time last year.

Talking of which, Unai celebrates his second anniversary by saying his dream is to win a trophy. What a time it’s been, and what a time it’s going to be.

Then comes the annoyance that was Bournemouth. Another full-strength team, another star-studded bench and another of the sort of games successful clubs look at as three points in the bag and don’t worry too much about. That’ll be part of the next stage, but in the meantime we always think this is where it’s going to go wrong. Not that it looked likely for much of the match. We had plenty of chances in the first half, but the only one of them that went into the net was ruled out on account of the ball being out of play before.