Are Villa Title Contenders?

At the time of writing, Aston Villa have just suffered their first Premier League home defeat since Crystal Palace took advantage of Villa’s very poor start to the season, way back in August.

A 1–0 defeat to Jack Grealish’s Everton saw The Villans miss a fantastic opportunity to go clear second in the Premier League table, leap-frogging Manchester City following their defeat in the Manchester Derby.

Opportunity missed, but with other results going the right way, Villa remain secure in third place with less than half of the season remaining.

An incredible run of victories since their poor start had seen the club surge from a relegation spot to sit comfortably in the crucial (for Champions League qualification) top 4 (or most likely, 5) and had very reluctant national media pundits asking the question, ‘can Villa win the Premier League this season’?

So – can the men from Villa Park actually win the Premier League….. lets look at the relevant factors which will ultimately decide the claret & blues fate.

Firstly, and vitally – injuries now seem to be piling up for the club, with midfield particularly hard-hit.

John McGinns knee injury during the Everton game looks like it may keep him out of the side for some time and this takes the total of midfield players injured, to 4. This will certainly affect the club in upcoming games and young, inexperienced youth-team prospects will be needed to enhance an already thin looking squad.

The clubs decision to sell striker, Donyell Malen to Roma this week, without yet having a replacement secured, seems very strange. The decision seems even stranger when taking into account Ollie Watkins’ poor goal return to-date. Watkins is currently Villa’s only striker and fans will be keeping their fingers crossed that by the time you read this, the club have brought-in a striker to compete with Watkins.

Other recruits are also needed now that injuries are taking their toll – The Villans are competing strongly in 3 competitions and the squad certainly needs the type of boost delivered this time last year with the loan signings of Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio.

The other ‘elephant in the room’, of course, is Villa’s habit of failing to ‘turn-up’ in vital, must win games! Whisper it – but the defeat against Everton in what should have been a routine home win to go second in the PL table, was symptomatic of this squads tendency to freeze.

Last seasons FA Cup semi-final and final league game at Old Trafford spring to mind – fabulous opportunities in different competitions in which Villa failed to perform. There were others over the previous two seasons also – something Villa must address.

So – my answer to the question is ‘no’, I don’t believe Villa will win the Premier League, but I certainly have enough faith in Unai Emery’s genius to confidently predict we will qualify for next seasons Champions League.. and maybe, just maybe also add a trophy too!

Image Credits: Elliot Brown via commons.wikimedia.org