Simon Jordan disagrees with Aston Villa argument and makes Newcastle United comparison

Simon Jordan disagrees with the notion that Aston Villa only hold a top four spot in the Premier League because of the failings of other big clubs who usually contend for the Champions League places. The talkSPORT pundit, formerly the owner of Crystal Palace, considers Villa to be in fourth, with four matches left to play, purely on merit.

Villa welcome Chelsea to Villa Park this weekend and in doing so entertain a side who would've been one of the favourites - certainly considering the money spent on transfers in the summer window - to have finished above Unai Emery's side before a ball was kicked at the beginning of the season. The Blues, like Manchester United and, to a lesser extent, Tottenham Hotspur have arguably failed to hit peak performance levels on a regular basis over the course of the season.

Indeed as we approach these final handful of league fixtures, only Spurs can realistically catch the Lions in the pursuit of fourth place. Villa, sitting on 66 points having won 20 of their 34 matches this term, are on course to hit the average number of points required to finish in the Champions League qualifying places. For Jordan, their position is justified - and it's not merely a case of other sides being below par.

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"That's an unfair characterisation. Villa are there on merit," Jordan told talkSPORT. "I don't know what gets you into the top four, it's normally about 71 points. Whoever gets 71 points is there on merit and they're likely to get 71 points. There are contributing factors which have aided and abetted. You'd have expected a bigger presence from other sides like Manchester United and Chelsea.

"Maybe, with the engines behind Tottenham, you'd have expected them to carry on and eclipse teams like Aston Villa, but you have to look at the work he's [Unai Emery] done and the fact that he's staying there for a longer period of time - as he should, because he's been given the opportunity to come back to the Premier League by Aston Villa and he's done very well, the job they hoped he'd do."

Jordan concedes that Villa will face a familiar balancing act of a challenge next year if they do clinch fourth and enter into the Champions League; while the Lions have enjoyed an inspired campaign this term in the Europa Conference League and the results on the continent have run in tandem with their league efforts, playing at Europe's top table will command a greater level of performance and energy.

As Newcastle have discovered this term with a squad which can't match the likes of Manchester City or Arsenal in terms of strength in depth, it can be difficult to keep delivering high performance every Saturday and Tuesday over the course of a campaign.

"I just think it'll be as tricky for Villa to maintain those standards as it has been for Newcastle. For different reasons. Unai Emery is undoubtedly a very good manager, and we're seeing the benefits of having a good manager, but Aston Villa are having a moment in the sun.

"As much as I really do like Aston Villa as a football club and I have a great deal of admiration for their achievements and the size and scale of the club, I'm not sure if it's going to be as straightforward as building a base, having a manager there with longevity and now they're going to be a shoo in to be in the top four every season. It's still a massive ask.

"You have some remarkable football clubs, in and around them, who are not firing like Chelsea and Manchester United, who have all the money in the world to get better. It will be really interesting to see. He's picked up the slack, shown the deficiencies in Steven Gerrard, he's shown what a manager of Aston Villa looks like.

"Ollie Watkins is absolutely firing. He's on top of his game, in every aspect, from the way he approaches the game to the quality of what he is doing during it. You look across the team, but I don't look at that team and think it's a world beating team. I think it's a really good team. We're getting to a point where to get into the top four on a repeated basis, you have to have an elite team that is really really up there now - even more so than the past."

Under NSWE, though, Jordan agrees that Villa have ideal owners who have the club's best interests at heart and that the single error of their entire era - since they arrived to rescue the club back in 2018, with Villa under Steve Bruce in the Championship - has been the appointment of Steven Gerrard, whose tenure he feels was a 'waste of time'.

"They're proper owners in terms of understanding sports franchises," Jordan said of Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens. "One of their main focuses is on America. They've been nothing but good for Aston Villa. There's been nothing bad about their presence. They've had to weather the storm the first season back in the Premier League where they stayed up by the skin of their teeth.

"They moved on from the Jack Grealish transfer and used some of those funds to utilise opportunities. They've bought well and they've got a decent manager in. Their only mistake was allowing [former CEO] Christian Purslow to bring Steven Gerrard in. That was a mistake and a waste of time for everybody concerned."

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