Aston Villa top at Christmas? It is fair to say not many would have pegged them to be pushing the expected title challengers at the half-way stage, and they stand on the cusp of an important milestone.
Aston Villa Top at Christmas – What Needs to Happen?
Aston Villa top at Christmas has occurred on five occasions, albeit with four of those coming in the 19th century. Of those four, three of them resulted in a title towards the end of the 1800’s.
That, of course, is a world away from the decadence of Premier League football, but Villa fans only have to rewind five seasons ago to find the last time they were in the second division.
That final year in the Championship also feels like a world away, and then some. The tangible possibility of a title race continues to pick up steam as Villa topple everything in their path, and although maintaining it for another 18 games is an incredibly tall order, the thought of topping the table at Christmas is enough to stimulate the fanbase.
Unai Emery’s overachievers need to find victory against Sheffield United at Villa Park on Friday evening. It is as fortunate a fixture as they can hope for given the Blades are the league’s worst team on the road, and Aston Villa have collected the most points on home soil.
Should they add to that points haul, they will also need Liverpool vs Arsenal to finish as a draw in order to top the table on Christmas Day. For a little bit of suggestive context, the two frontrunners shared the spoils at Anfield last year.
Should this exact tale of events occur, Aston Villa would become the first team outside of the traditional ‘Big Six’ to occupy top spot at Christmas since Leicester City in 2015.
This of course bodes well for Villa, given Leicester went on to claim the unlikeliest of Premier League titles that season.
If Liverpool and Arsenal draw, and Aston Villa win – Villa will be top on Christmas Day pic.twitter.com/Hvz96hqF2m
— Zak (@ZG1999_) December 17, 2023
What Were the Odds for Leicester to Win the Premier League?
Comparing Leicester and Aston Villa’s festive table-topping is doing the latter a disservice somewhat, given Unai Emery managed to guide them to European qualification for the first time in 13 years.
However, if they were to sit atop the league at Christmas, they are giving themselves a solid chance of being in the running come the summer 2024.
16 of the 31 Premier League champions to date have led at Christmas, so the odds are slightly in favour.
Leicester, who were 5000/1 to lift the title at the start of the 2015/16 season, dropped all the way down to just 10/1 by Christmas that year as they led Arsenal by two points.
Should the aforementioned scenario pan out for Aston Villa, they too could lead Arsenal by two points at Christmas.
Perhaps we are reading into it a little too much given Arsenal topped the league with a five point gap between themselves and Manchester City this time last year, only to trade places and trail by five at the end of the campaign.
Aston Villa were 250/1 to win the league prior to the start of the season, which has been cut to – you guessed it – 10/1 across several Premier League betting sites.
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