Recently, The Athletic published a special article analyzing how Aston Villa has made a strong comeback from its early-season slump and officially joined the ranks of Premier League title contenders.
In last week's Monday briefing, my colleague Oliver Kay presciently asked: Are the title contenders this season Arsenal, Manchester City, and Aston Villa? Of course, the background is that Villa had just defeated Arsenal, ending the London club's 18-game unbeaten run and securing their 9th win in 10 Premier League matches.
But after introducing Villa into the discussion, Oliver then focused on whether this was the beginning of a major upheaval for Arteta's team or just a narrow defeat in a thrilling game with a high number of injuries on both sides. As for the winners, they only got one more sentence, saying that their recent string of narrow victories "suggests a certain belief and momentum" that other challengers (cough, Chelsea) "have yet to demonstrate."
Well, a week has passed, three points secured, and another hint has emerged. It's time to give Villa the credit it deserves.
Emery's team's performance at the start of this season is like that of a group of players still sulking at themselves for missing out on Champions League qualification at the end of last season due to a slightly controversial defeat to Manchester United. Participating in the Europa League has affected the club's financial situation, so Villa was unable to boost morale through a large number of signings this summer.
Even so, their season got off to a surprisingly sluggish start. After five games, they had only accumulated 3 points, all from draws. They didn't score until their fifth game (a 1-1 draw against newly promoted Sunderland) and also lost to Brentford in the League Cup.
But on September 28, when trailing 0-1 at home against Fulham, something was activated. Watkins ended his nine-game goal drought, John McGinn added a goal, and Emiliano Buendía scored his first goal in a year to seal a 3-1 victory.
Since then, they have won 10 out of 11 league games, with their only setback being an away defeat to Liverpool at the beginning of November. Their 3-2 away victory over West Ham United last Sunday was their ninth consecutive win in all competitions, as they have also started to enjoy themselves in the Europa League.
The key word for this victory is "efficiency", as these three goals came from a total of four on-target shots (expected goals value was only 0.62), and Morgan Rogers scored the most beautiful one in the 79th minute. That was his second goal of the game and the fifth of the season.
In fact, Rodgers' situation is in sync with the club. He got off to a slow start but now looks like someone who wants to trade last season's Professional Footballers' Association Young Player of the Year award for the full-fledged Player of the Year award - he scored two of yesterday's three goals (the other was a spectacular own goal headed in by Konstantinos Mavropanos, which we'll talk about later). However, the entire team has performed outstandingly, and the midfield triangle composed of Kamara, Amadou Onana, and Tielemans is currently one of the best in the league.
Do they have sufficient squad depth to challenge Arsenal, whose recent form has shown some fluctuations? Do they possess comprehensive strength to go head-to-head with Manchester City, which has demonstrated "ominous" dominance?
It's very likely that they won't... but they have a chance. After all, they've already beaten both teams this season, and now they're only 1 point behind Manchester City and 3 points behind Arsenal.
Jaheem100
39
Kinda reminds me of Tottenham under Poch when they went an entire summer without signing any new players and they were terrific that season. More teams should learn that developing their current players is always gonna be more important than bringing in new ones.