[BBC]
Aston Villa profitable the Premier League wouldn’t have the seismic impression of triumph in 2016 however it might be a surprising shake-up of the established order.
Unai Emery’s aspect gained their ninth sport in succession after they got here from behind to win at leaving them third and simply three factors behind leaders
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Villa’s surge of kind is all of the extra outstanding after a poor begin wherein they took six makes an attempt to win their first league sport earlier than lastly securing a house victory over
If Villa did win their first title since 1981, it might nonetheless be an enormous shock given the anticipated three-way battle between champions Arsenal and however they should be a part of the dialog on present kind.
I tipped Villa to complete fifth this season, a prediction based mostly on Emery’s pedigree and previous kind. He took them into the Champions League final season, then solely missed out on a spot on this season’s match after dropping at on the ultimate day of 2024-25.
Emery has the magic trick of constructing good gamers higher. Morgan Rogers, as he proved with two objectives at West Ham, is likely one of the league’s excellent gamers, whereas he stored religion with England striker Ollie Watkins via a barren spell and again to kind.
Villa nonetheless stay outsiders, however Emery has made a profession out of defying the chances so it might be harmful to dismiss him doing the identical once more.