Aston Villa skipper John McGinn isn’t getting dragged into disucssions about the club’s Premier League title chance
16:37, 24 Dec 2025Updated 16:47, 24 Dec 2025
Aston Villa’s John McGinn(Image: SmartFrame/Pro Sports Images)
John McGinn says talk of entering the Premier League title race has been banned at Bodymoor Heath, insisting Aston Villa play their best when they fly under the radar.
Unai Emery’s side earned their 10th successive win in all competitions last weekend, beating Manchester United 2–1, and will travel to Chelsea on Saturday in search of an eighth consecutive league victory.
The last time Villa won more than seven top-flight matches in a row was between October and December 1910, when they recorded nine straight victories.
Currently three points behind league leaders Arsenal, Villa will return to the capital on December 30 to face Arsenal in what will be a crucial week for Emery’s side.
McGinn, however, is not entertaining any title-race talk, though he admits this Villa team is one of the best he has been part of in his career.
“I think it was two or three years ago when we were a win away from finishing for Christmas at the top of the table, but we drew to Sheffield United. We had just beaten Arsenal and Man City too,” he recalled to Sky Sports.
“This season has given me so much pleasure because we were written off, sort of down and out. We probably had some doubts ourselves, but the way we have come back from it and gone on this run has been amazing.
“I think we operate at our best when we go under the radar, and the start of the season helped us do that. We slowly climbed the table, but we aren’t actually talking about it [title race].
“We’re in this mode where the games keep coming and we are sneaking a few wins and deserving other wins.
“There’s some world class teams in this league and also teams below us who will be there come the end of the season. We’re not allowed to talk about it, we won’t talk about it and we shouldn’t.”
Asked what has changed about Villa’s form, McGinn said: “Morgan’s shots were going over the bar! Now they’re dipping a wee bit under the bar, but no, we started really poor and couldn’t find a goal.
“We got closer and closer and have now found our form and some resilience. We have been behind so many times and we come back.
“We’ve got something in there and we have been fighting until the end. The start of the season was quite disruptive because of a few subjects, but then we started to get our top players into form and that’s happening at the minute.”
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