Premier League WinnersAston VillaHaving failed to win any of their first five Premier League games of the season, Unai Emery’s side have now won eight of their last nine to saunter through the mass of mid-table mediocrity, into the Champions League places and now to the very fringes of the title race.Sure, they’re being helped along by the fact that, with the exception of Arsenal, everyone is a bit rubbish in some way or another this year. But that situation has been there for other teams to exploit, and they simply haven’t.Spurs, Liverpool, Man United, Newcastle and now even perhaps Chelsea have become consumed by that mid-table fug and seem utterly incapable of doing anything like Villa have done to ease themselves clear of it.The goals have started to flow now for a team who started the season looking like they might never actually score another goal ever again, and even after the three they conceded in a wild win at Brighton on Wednesday night it is still only Arsenal and Crystal Palace who boast a better defensive record than the Villans.Coming back from 2-0 down to win shows the belief Villa now possess, and sets up a huge game on Saturday lunchtime.There’s never really a particularly a good time to play Arsenal, but we would strongly contend that this might just be the least bad. Villa’s own form is stunning, especially at Villa Park, while Arsenal’s injury problems mounted further in victory over Brentford, they’ve stumbled on the last couple of away days, and Mikel Arteta is already talking darkly about the sheer unfairness of the Gunners being the first team in football history to be asked to play two games of football per week.If Villa can rumble on and win that one as well then suddenly, without telling anyone, they’ll have moved within three points of the Premier League leaders approaching the halfway stage of the season.
Found that article and it's in a section called "Premier League Winners and Losers", based on midweek results. They also list Leeds as one of the "winners" and, presumably, don't expect them to be challenging for the title.
