Villa's Christmas charge: Can Emery's men crash the Arsenal-City party?

LONDON, Dec 24 : Aston ‌Villa are heading into the Christmas period like a runaway sleigh with 10 successive victories in all competitions and with the Premier League's top spot in their sights.

The Midlands club's 2-1 win over Manchester United, their seventh in a row in the league, left them three points behind leaders Arsenal and one behind Manchester City.

They have bagged 33 points out of the last 36 available, and in Unai Emery have a manager who knows how to deliver silverware.

Yet, according to the Premier League's data analysts Opta, Villa have a 5.3 per cent chance of winning the English title for the first time since 1981, with Arsenal on 68.7 per cent and City on 24.7 per cent.

"They're just not as good as Arsenal and Man City. They're doing excellent, they're ‌doing great, but I just don't feel they're going to be in the title race," former Manchester United forward ‌and Sky Sports pundit Wayne Rooney said.

Rooney is not alone in that belief, but Villa's relentless form makes them hard to ignore. Extend their winning streak to 12 straight matches and the doubters will be running out of arguments.

Villa, who have 36 points from 17 games despite not winning any of their first five, go to fourth-placed Chelsea on Saturday and stay in the capital to take on Arsenal three days later.

It will be a huge test of Villa's credentials, but Villa will not be daunted, according to Morgan Rogers, scorer of both goals in Sunday's 2-1 victory over Manchester United.

"We're all confident in each other, the manager's confident in us and we ‍go out there and we feel like we're going to win every game," the England international said.

Skeptics will note Villa had two more points at this stage in the 2023-24 season before fading to