It doesn’t matter how you approach research, it’s almost impossible not to have a pre-conceived notion in your mind about what you’re going to find. Sometimes you’ll even be looking specifically for data to back up a position or opinion you already hold.

Personally, what I really enjoy about research is when I find that the raw data doesn’t match what I expected to find and challenges the ideas I had formed. In simple terms; I find that I’m wrong and it causes me to re-evaluate, or, if you like, learn. To ignore the data that doesn’t fit my ideas is to miss the lesson and, ultimately, is actually just dishonest.

For instance, I made a throw away comment after yesterday’s disappointing loss at Upton Park expressing a desire to see MON rotate his squad a little more. If I’m honest, it’s really a case that Ash looks a little jaded and short on confidence and possibly a concern, which I’ve mentioned here before, that the Petrov/Sidwell partnership just doesn’t cut it in the centre.

I struggle to buy the excuse that young, professional athletes are “tired”, especially at this stage of the season, but there’s something missing out there at the moment. The lads just don’t seem to be firing on all cylinders for some reason and I’m wondering whether one or two players need a rest and not so much for physical purposes.

MON famously expressed some surprise during the summer when he learned that he had only started 17 players in the Premiership across the whole of the 2008/09 season. As I had looked into that before, I decided to see how he was doing this season and found that the data didn’t quite match my presumption.

At this stage of the season, the teams have played either 10 or 11 games. Villa played their 11th at Upton Park yesterday. Over the course of those 11 games MON has started 18 players. MON started 17 players during the whole of last season, as I already mentioned, and 18 players during the whole of the 2007/08 season.  He’s already matched those numbers and that wasn’t exactly what I expected, but how does that stack up against the other teams in the Premiership so far this season?

Here’s a table of how many starters have been used in the Premiership and I’ve added a column showing the number of players at each club who have started 100% of their league games so far this season.

OK, he certainly could have started another player or two, but, again, not as bad as I thought it would be. However, it’s worth considering that if Warnock, Dunne & Collins had been acquired by the first game, they would almost certainly have played all games. As it is, all three have featured for their previous teams and are included as such in the table above.

The four players who have started all eleven games are Friedel, Ash, Petrov & Gabby and as far as I’m concerned there’s a strong case that all three outfield players have shown signs that a break wouldn’t hurt.

The remaining 14 players who have started Premiership games so far this term are Milner, Cuellar, Sidwell, Dunne, Collins, Warnock, Carew, Beye, Heskey, Reo-Coker, Shorey, Delph, Davies & Clark.

Yet to start, but capable; Luke Young, Craig Gardner and Brad Guzan plus the likes of Albrighton and Delfouneso at a stretch, but the youngsters really don’t look likely to get thrown into a Premiership game from the start any time soon. Oh, and there’s always Downing towards the end of the year of course.

I think the point this exercise demonstrates is that MON has some wiggle room to introduce a little extra rotation within the squad. Ashley Young really needs a breather, he’s been the main focus of everything Villa does going forward for a good while now and the burden ought to be shouldered by some of the others.

We know Milner can play on the left and play well. We haven’t had chance to see him there yet, but it’s been speculated that Delph could do a job there. We did get to see Nickey Shorey play there a couple of times during the Peace Cup and I’ve always been an advocate of using a full back on the wing in a pinch.

Marc Albrighton was a revelation during the summer yet at Upton Park Heskey was preferred to play on the left and Ash on the right instead of bringing Albrighton back in. It may have been forced through injuries, but West Ham unleashed a 20 year old striker on us who terrorized our defense with a 60 minute Man of the Match performance and won the game for them. Meanwhile, we had Reo-Coker plodding up and down the right wing attracting boos from bitter Cockneys.

So come on Martin, you’ve spent all these years and a lot of money assembling a squad capable of challenging for honours, let’s see them get a chance. After all, it’s a marathon, not a sprint.