The Athletic FC.

Welcome to the Athletic FC podcast with me, Ayur Akimolere.

Aston Villa didn't score a goal in August.

Now they're just three points off Arsenal.

So, are they real title contenders?

Here for this one, we've got our Aston Villa correspondent Jacob Tanswell.

We've also got Liam Tharm in the studio with the tactical know-how as well.

Right, Jacob, Villa failed to win their first five league games this season, but it's changed around since then.

They've then won nine of the next ten.

Then out third in the table, what was your credit to this turnaround?

Essentially, if you want to the short answer, it's Unai Emory.

I remember going on this podcast back in August, September time, after they drew one

mum of Sondland where he called his players lazy.

And at that point, you thought, oh no, this doesn't seem to be going very well. But the thing

about Emory is that he's, apart from that answer, which a few days after that, he actually regretted.

He's very consistent. He doesn't get too high. He doesn't get too low. And that's the mentality

that he's tried to foster over three years at Asson Villa. And I guess a positive upshot of

not having much money to spend in the summer is that the

squads basically stayed the same for three years. A lot of these players predate Emory, so they know

of his ways of working. There was a fear, especially in the early parts of the season, that

there was physical mental burnout, the long analysis meetings, the stagnancy, really. But the

fact that they all know how we works the habits they felt if we

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