Troy Deeney has suggested on talkSPORT that Aston Villa should be considered as Premier League title contenders.
The boyhood Birmingham fan was responding to claims that Manchester United are in the race for the title following their 6-2 win on Sunday and he feels Villa should be talked about in the ‘same breath’ if that’s the case.
Dean Smith’s side are sitting ninth in the table on 22 points from 12 matches, but they have two games in hand on most of the teams above them barring both Manchester clubs.
Villa’s games in hand will be against Man City and Newcastle – win those and Villa are second in the table, or three points behind the current leaders Liverpool with a goal difference of +11, which would, of course, improve.
Nonetheless, whilst the Watford striker is a Birmingham City fan by heart, he was pretty honest in his assessment of their bitter rivals.
“I see a lot of people saying ‘Oh, United are back in the title race’,” said Deeney.
“If that’s the case then we have to put Villa in the same breath because Villa have got two games in hand and they win both then they would be second.”
Whilst Villa may not consider themselves to be in the title race, they will feel they are in the race to finish in a European spot.
The Midlands outfit will always score goals for fun because of the high-quality individuals they have on show. Plus, their manager is naturally forward-thinking.
But given that Villa have the second-best defence in the league and the most clean sheets. If they can maintain that then they can definitely dream of a European tour nex season where they will have to probably self-isolate for ‘x’ amount of days.
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