The Premier League produced another weekend of fantastic action and as we look ahead to Monday Night Football and beyond, there are plenty of fixtures available to sink your teeth into over at the betting page. In terms of what we’ve already seen, though, there was one club that stood out above the rest – Aston Villa.
Dean Smith’s side have won all four of their games in the Premier League this season and as a result, we’re starting to wonder whether or not they’re able to reclaim their spot at the top dogs in the West Midlands. P.S: Birmingham City and Coventry City simply aren’t ready to be in this conversation yet.
Aston Villa
As the only team out of the three to lift the European Cup, Aston Villa automatically jump to the top of the page as the leaders in this discussion – but recent history is far more important. They just about managed to stay up last season and now, they’re starting to build a squad that could really do some serious damage.
Wolverhampton Wanderers
Wolves have finished in seventh place for the last two seasons, they reached the quarter-finals of the UEFA Europa League recently and they’ve made some fantastic acquisitions in the transfer market in the last few years. However, while all of that may be true, they’ve started the season off in a shaky way and losing Doherty & Jota didn’t exactly help them.
West Bromwich Albion
As much as Baggies fans want to believe they’re back to being the alphas in the Midlands, that simply isn’t the case. Slaven Bilic clearly wants to do some big things at The Hawthorns but he just doesn’t have the resources necessary to do so. If they can stay up and avoid relegation that’ll be an achievement, and they need to realise that.
Conclusion
If you’re working on a week to week basis then Aston Villa are leading the way as the best team in the West Midlands, but the proof has yet to really be in the pudding. Villa can win a few games here and there but until they finish above Wolves and West Brom when all 38 games have been played, Wolves are still running the show.
The next big challenge is going to take place on December 12th when Villa make the trip over to Molineux to lock horns with Nuno Espirito Santo’s men. The odds should favour Smith’s men right now and if they can continue their upward trajectory, there’s no reason why they shouldn’t get the job done.
The Baggies have to start digging deep when it comes to the Premier League because if they keep on losing as we head into the busy winter period, they could be on track for one of the lowest points totals in PL history. It’d be great to see Birmingham and Coventry enter the fight but on current form, they both look destined to spend the next few months fending off the threat of relegation to the third tier.
