Emery and in-form England star leading title charge from Premier League’s unlikely lads

It is only two months since Morgan Rogers was standing on the Stadium of Light pitch, looking confused as Unai Emery berated him for failing to anticipate a through-ball as Aston Villa failed to beat a team that played for an hour with 10 men.

- Jonathan Wilson Villa Park

At that point, as Villa went six without a win, it wasn’t clear whether Rogers’ form was a symptom or a cause of Villa’s more general malaise.

There was a volcanic touchline reaction from Emery yesterday as well, but this was rather more positive. As Rogers swept in his second of the game to restore Villa’s lead, Emery ripped off his thick padded coat, spread his arms and roared. Villa were on their way to a 10th successive win and, having failed to win any of their first six games of the season, are somehow only three points behind the leaders Arsenal.

Are they in the title race? That’s a rather hard question to answer.

History, at least in the postwar era, a general sense of the status of the club, suggests not. And they have not been entirely convincing in many games this season, even as the wins have stacked up. In only two games this season have Villa had an xG more than 0.5 greater than their opponents, according to Opta. For a team that have just won 10 in a row, Villa look weirdly vulnerable - but at the moment the margins are falling their way.

Their recent policy seems to be to trade blows with an opponent and wait for Rogers to bail them out with a couple of crisp finishes.

It happened at Leeds, it happened at West Ham, and it happened against Manchester United.