Milan are all bark, no bite without Gattuso

But as they set off to London, AC Milan will ponder sternly the question: how much will they miss Gennaro Gattuso?

Gennaro "Rino" Gattuso receives far more yellow cards than he scores goals.
No surprise there. His football has always been that way, his rugged aggression channelled into duels in midfield rather than unexpected thrusts into the opposition penalty area.
Gattuso had not registered a goal in competitive action for three years for AC Milan before the weekend. Nor was it just his yellow card-count that was beginning to embarrassingly exceed his scoring record; his suspensions were vastly outnumbering his goals, too.
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Gattuso will not be travelling to London with his club colleagues today ahead of tomorrow's Champions League last-16 match at Tottenham Hotspur, because he is banned. He also says he does not want to even take his seat in the stand because of likely hostility towards him from Spurs fans.
Suspended because of a caution he picked up in the 1-0 defeat at San Siro in the first leg, Gattuso knows he is not welcome at White Hart Lane because he directed a butt at Spurs' assistant coach Joe Jordan after the final whistle, in full view of television cameras and photographers.
Gattuso will not play a European match again this season unless Milan reach the final - he collected a further four matches of castigation from Uefa for the violence he used against Jordan.
But as they set off to London, Milan will ponder sternly the question: how much will they miss Gattuso?
For all that the bearded bulldog of Italian football allows his pugnacity to slide more and more often into caricature, Gattuso on Saturday showed emphatically that on the big occasions, he still has a value.
His first Serie A goal since January 2008 sealed another three points in Milan's convincing charge towards a first title since 2004, and it broke the stalemate of a hard-fought away fixture.
And it was against Juventus, in Turin, which for any Milanista is a feather in the cap, long to be remembered. The goal means that, should Milan win the scudetto, he will have a firm fingerprint on that prize.
The goal itself was nicely taken, a fine left-foot finish midway through the second-half after Zlatan Ibrahimovic had knocked the ball into space.
The strike had plenty of determination about it. It may also have been spurred by an intention that it should be a forget-me-not from a man who, in post-Paolo Maldini Milan, is as much an icon, a totem, as any of the many veterans and flair players.
Gattusowas visibly pleased with his match-winner's role on exiting the Stadio Olimpico, but the armband obliged him to talk rationally about how a five-point lead - Inter Milan won 5-1 at Genoa the next day to keep up the chase in second place - meant Serie A is anything but decided.
"There is still a long way to go and it'll be tough," said a smiling figure who looked very unlikely to butt anybody. "Of course the Milan derby next month is a big game, too, but it's just another three points for both teams."
He did take the chance to say that Milan's ascendancy owed a little to the sort of values that Gattuso likes to represent.
"You know, sometimes these days, the coach here, Max Allegri, has to tell us to be a bit less aggressive in practice."
As Gattuso departed Turin it was acceptable to wonder whether Allegri might be worth listening to, especially if he were to tell his agitator in chief to impose restraint at Milan's training ground in which one player - Oguchi Onweyu - recently risked serious injury because of the overexuberant tackling of another - Ibrahimovic.
And also to be careful how Gattuso, with his 33 years of experience, behaves in a Champions League last-16 match.
Milan could miss Gattuso's galvanising qualities tomorrow. After all, they need something almost as unexpected as a Gattuso goal to go through.
 
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