Manchester City may have built up a head of steam going into Sunday's match at Aston Villa, but, then again, so had the hosts.

It took Unai Emery's side until 25 September to win a match in any competition, but they have used their 1-0 Europa League victory at home to Bologna as a launchpad for a remarkable transformation.

They have gone on to win four games in a row in the Premier League, starting with their 3-1 victory at home to Fulham.

Villa now look to have got the frustration of missing out on Champions League qualification on the final day of last season well and truly out of their system.

Their next match? Away to a Liverpool...

Villa's Premier League revival:

• Aston Villa 0-0 Newcastle
• Brentford 1-0 Aston Villa
• Aston Villa 0-3 Crystal Palace
• Everton 0-0 Aston Villa
• Sunderland 1-1 Aston Villa
• Aston Villa 3-1 Fulham
• Aston Villa 2-1 Burnley
• Tottenham 1-2 Aston Villa
• Aston Villa 1-0 Man City

Manchester City

It's true that the pressure cranks up in the title race in April, Henry, but dropped points before the turn of the year can leave teams with a mountain to climb.

Games are coming thick and fast for Pep Guardiola and his Manchester City side, with domestic and European challenges piling up.

The good news for City is they have four home matches in their next six - returning to Etihad Stadium this weekend to host high-flying Bournemouth in the Premier League after a midweek EFL Cup tie at Swansea.

• 29 Oct: Swansea (A)
• 01 Nov: Bournemouth (H)
• 05 Nov: Borussia Dortmund (H)
• 08 Nov: Liverpool (H)
• 22 Nov: Newcastle (A)
• 26 Nov: Bayer Leverkusen (H)

On the fitness of Erling Haaland after the Norway striker collided with a post at Villa Park, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola did little to quell concern in his post-match interview with the BBC.

When asked about his condition, Guardiola shrugged and replied: "You'll have to ask him."

Image source, Getty Images

Shamoon Hafez
Football news reporter at Villa Park

Manchester City started brightly but tailed off after conceding and without the 15-goal Erling Haaland taking his chances, no-one else was able to step up and grab the scoring mantle.

The Norway striker failed to score in only his second game for club and country this season and thought he had claimed a dramatic late leveller, only for the offside flag to go up against Omar Marmoush who crossed low for Haaland to squeeze a finish over the line.

There was concern when he collided heavily with the post following his disallowed effort and City can ill-afford to have their star man ruled out for any period of time.

Image source, Getty Images

• Pep Guardiola has suffered his 50th Premier League defeat in his 351st game, with only Sir Alex Ferguson taking charge of more matches to reach a half-century of losses in the competition (367).
• Manchester City have lost three of their opening nine games in the Premier League this season (W5 D1), with the Cityzens last suffering more defeats at this stage of a league campaign in 2008-09 (four).

Image source, Getty Images

Manchester City had started to gather momentum after recovering from back-to-back defeats - to Tottenham and Brighton - in the opening month of their season.

Pep Guardiola's side bounced back with a resounding 3-0 win at home to rivals Manchester United before battling to a 1-1 draw at Arsenal.

Three consecutive wins followed - against Burnley, Brentford and Everton - before they suffered their third defeat of the season at Aston Villa.

Man City's first nine games:

• Wolves 1-4 Man City
• Man City 0-2 Tottenham
• Brighton 2-1 Man City
• Man City 3-0 Man Utd
• Arsenal 1-1 Man City
• Man City 5-1 Burnley
• Brentford 0-1 Man City
• Man City 2-0 Everton
• Aston Villa 1-0 Man City

Aston Villa's impressive home record was not lost on manager Unai Emery in his post-match comments to BBC's Match of the Day:

"Our fortress. Villa Park. We are feeling here so, so good. The positive energy to us was fantastic. We needed to show our wishes and commitment, and our capacity to play.

"I think everything trying to get together, the positive energy, the quality of the players, the tactics that we did and the effort. I am so proud. How the supporters are pushing us is very, very important."

Pep Guardiola had warned in the run-up to Sunday's defeat at Aston Villa that it was one of the hardest games his Manchester City side would face this season.

That opinion was certainly not baseless.

Aston Villa have now lost just two of their past 24 Premier League home games since the start of last season (won 14, drawn eight).

No ever-present side has lost fewer home matches in the competition across that period (Liverpool and Arsenal, also two).

Image source, Getty Images

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has been very positive about his side's form over the past month and remained optimistic about the current squad's potential.

His mood was in stark contrast to much of last season, when the six-time Premier League winner cut a frustrated figure as he attempted to manage a squad transition.

Despite sitting fifth after nine games, as we have seen City remain second favourites for the title according to Opta's latest predictions.

And Guardiola remained upbeat after Sunday's loss.

"We made a lot of chances, but unfortunately, we couldn't score. It was the finishing, but overall, the performance I am happy with," he told the BBC.

"We performed really well. After we dropped a little, in general, the second half was much better. In general, our game was good."

Shamoon Hafez
Football news reporter at Villa Park

Manchester City's nine-match unbeaten run was ended at Villa Park as Unai Emery celebrated three years as Aston Villa manager with a hard-fought victory.

After a mixed start to the season, which continued with a shock defeat by Go Ahead Eagles in the Europa League on Thursday, the battling victory over City was Villa's fourth on the bounce in the Premier League.

Matty Cash's precise left-foot finish from the edge of the box after 19 minutes was enough for Villa to take all three point and climb to eighth in the table - one point behind fifth-placed City.

Could it finally be Arsenal's year? That conversation has moved on somewhat in recent weeks to: Who could challenge Arsenal for the title?

The latest predictions from Opta's Supercomputer - which looks at the games each side has left and predicts the percentage chances of them finishing in each position - has the Gunners as clear favourites.

Mikel Arteta's side are now given a 67.34% chance of finishing top.

While Manchester City and Liverpool may have dropped out of the top four, but they are still second and third favourites to win the title.

Fourth-placed Sunderland, meanwhile, are given a 0.0% chance of doing a Leicester despite their promising start. The promoted side's most likely finishing position remains 14th (13.37%).

Image source, Opta

Before we move away from Arsenal and on to their faltering title rivals, here's a look at what's coming up for the Gunners as they seek to maintain their early advantage.

Arsenal are featured in three competitions in the upcoming weeks, with games against Brighton and newly promoted sides Burnley and Sunderland to come in the Premier League.

The Gunners end November with a north London derby, the visit of German giants Bayern Munich, before a trip to Chelsea.

• 29 Oct - Brighton (H)
• 1 Nov - Burnley (A)
• 4 Nov - Slavia Prague (A)
• 8 Nov - Sunderland (A)
• 23 Nov - Tottenham Hotspur (H)
• 26 Nov - Bayern Munich (H)

Theo Walcott
Former Arsenal forward on Match of the Day 2

Arsenal can do a bit of everything now. The whole team has a fear factor.

People are just afraid of them and it is great to see.

It's starting to now be normal that they don't concede goals.

They will have a bad patch and last year it was too many draws, but I don't think that's going to happen this year.

There is belief in the whole club now.