10-Game Winning Streak : Aston Villa… Title Contenders?

The winter of 2025 has brought an unexpected chill to the traditional powerhouses of English football, but at Villa Park, the atmosphere is white-hot. Aston Villa is currently in the midst of a historic 10-game winning streak across all competitions, a feat the club hasn’t achieved since 111 years ago, back in 1914. To understand the magnitude of this achievement, one only has to look back to the desolation of September. Following a grueling summer and a stagnant start, Villa sat near the bottom of the table, having failed to score a single goal in four consecutive matches.

The narrative then was of a project in decline and a manager whose tactical demands had finally exhausted his squad. Today, that narrative has been incinerated. Villa has not only found their footing; they have re-engineered their identity to become one of the most formidable tactical machines in the country.

The contrast between the dark days of early season and the current euphoria is staggering. In September, the squad looked heavy-legged and devoid of ideas. The loss of key personnel and the tightening of financial belts due to Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) seemed to have broken the spirit of a team that had worked so hard to reach the Champions League. Fans were questioning if the Emery era had peaked.

However, the current 10-game winning streak is not a fluke or a run of easy fixtures. It is a calculated, cold-blooded response to adversity. By winning ten games on the bounce, including crucial European nights and high-stakes domestic clashes, Villa has signaled a reawakening. They are no longer a team that relies on the underdog tag; they are a side that dictates terms to every opponent they face, regardless of the stature of the stadium or the value of the opposing lineup, as seen in their 2-1 win vs leaders, Arsenal.

The catalyst for this turnaround can be traced back to a specific moment of “tough love” from Unai Emery. Following a lackluster 1-1 draw against Sunderland, a match Villa was expected to win, Emery broke his usual diplomatic poise. He publicly labeled the team’s defensive transitions as “lazy” and “arrogant.” This wasn’t just a media soundbite; it was the prelude to a brutal week at the Bodymoor Heath training ground.

Emery initiated a series of intense, four-hour video analysis sessions. The focus was on psychological weight the squad carried after the forced sale of Jacob Ramsey and the inability to spend big in the transfer window. Emery convinced the group that their strength didn’t lie in new signings, but in tactical perfection. He challenged senior figures like John McGinn and Tyrone Mings to reclaim the dressing room. The result was a psychological reset. The players stopped thinking about the teammates that had left and started obsessing over the tactical details Emery was preaching. The “lazy” tag was replaced by a collective work ethic that has become the backbone of their winning run.

The “how” is found in Emery’s sophisticated tactical architecture. In the build-up phase, Villa’s back four and two holding midfielders form a tight shape deep in their own half. They play short, repetitive passes, often involving Emi Martinez as a “third center-back.” This is a deliberate trap designed to tempt the opposition into pressing them.

Once the opponent commits their midfield forward to break this box, Villa activates their passing lanes. These are vertical passing corridors that open up in the half-spaces. With one or two crisp, line-breaking passes from Pau Torres or Youri Tielemans, the ball is moved instantly into the feet of Morgan Rogers or Ollie Watkins. By baiting the press and then bypassing it, Villa creates 3-on-2 or 4-on-3 situations in the final third.

Perhaps most impressively, Villa is currently running less than almost any other team in the league. By keeping the ball in the backline and making the opposition chase them, they preserve their physical reserves for the final 20 minutes of games, the period where most of their winning goals have been scored during this 10-game streak.

The question of sustainability is the one every rival fan is asking. Early in the streak, critics pointed to “luck,” noting that Villa was being outshot but winning through clinical finishing. However, the metrics have evolved. Over the last five matches, Villa’s Expected Goals (xG) dominance has aligned perfectly with the scorelines. They are no longer “nicking” results; they are earning them.

A key pillar of this sustainability is Morgan Rogers. While clinical finishing is vital, Rogers has become the structural glue of the team. His unique physical profile allows him to shrug off challenges in the middle of the pitch, while his elite progressive carrying numbers mean Villa can transition from defense to attack in seconds. Unlike a player merely going through a “purple patch,” Rogers’ contribution is rooted in his ability to demand the ball under pressure and create space for others, making the team less reliant on any single goalscorer. His durability and consistency in the “number ten” role provide a tactical foundation that suggests Villa’s high-efficiency attacking output is a permanent shift in power rather than a temporary surge.

Are Aston Villa firmly in the title race? To answer that, one only needs to look at the table: they sit just three points off the summit as the festive period begins. The math confirms their status as genuine contenders, but the real test of their legitimacy is only just beginning. Villa currently sit three points off the summit, keeping pace with a Manchester City side that remains as relentless as ever and an Arsenal team that continues to find ways to win despite a thinning squad. The looming question, however, is whether the team has truly moved past the Ghosts of 2023, the season where a promising title charge famously unraveled during the high-pressure Boxing Day period.

While the current 10-game streak suggests a higher level of maturity, it remains to be seen if those psychological hurdles have been cleared. This 2025 squad appears more tactically flexible and possesses better rotation options than the one that collapsed two years ago, but the grueling winter schedule is the ultimate filter for pretenders. They have successfully matched the elite stride for stride so far, but the transition from a “team in form” to a “title winner” requires maintaining this level when the physical and mental fatigue of January sets in. Until they navigate the next six weeks without a significant dip in points, their status as a title-winning force remains a working hypothesis rather than a proven fact.

While Morgan Rogers captures the headlines, and rightly so, the success of this run also belongs to the unsung heroes. Pau Torres has become the league’s premier “pressing bait.” His composure on the ball is so extreme that he often invites strikers to within inches of him before releasing a pass, a high-risk strategy that has become Villa’s greatest weapon. Similarly, players like Matty Cash and Ian Maatsen at fullback have also been key. These are not superstar signings, but superstar coaching products.

As the 10-win streak continues, it is clear that Unai Emery has achieved something greater than just a run of results: he has broken the “Big Six” hegemony. Villa has again reached the top of the mountain not through reckless spending, but through tactical innovation and elite-level man-management.

They are establishing a new standard where finishing in the top four is no longer the ceiling, but the baseline. Whether they lift the Premier League trophy in May or fall just short, the transformation of this team is a blueprint for how a historic club can return to the elite.