Unai Emery has played down suggestions that Aston Villa are genuine contenders to win the Premier League title.
Last season, the Spaniard remarkably transformed Villa from relegation candidates to a team that finished in seventh position and qualified for the Europa Conference League.
The West Midlands outfit have only kicked on from there, accumulating 29 points from 14 games before they played host to champions Manchester City on Wednesday night.
With City having gone three games without a win, a response was expected from Pep Guardiola's side, but they were outfought and outhustled by a rampant Villa side who deservedly prevailed by a 1-0 scoreline.
Despite it taking a Leon Bailey strike in the second half to separate the teams, Villa sensationally had 22 shots on goal in comparison to just two for Man City.
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As a result, Villa now sit in third position in the Premier League table, two points ahead of City and just four points adrift of leaders Arsenal, who they play on Saturday.
After the game, Emery was naturally quizzed on whether Villa had catapulted themselves into the mix for a first top-flight title since the 1980-81 campaign.
However, he played down such claims, insisting that there are seven other teams who are better equipped to be crowned champions in May.
The 52-year-old said, as quoted by The Independent: "We are not contenders. There are seven teams who are contenders more than us.
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"Now we are on game 15. We are going to play game 16 on Saturday against Arsenal and we are going to focus on it. We are happy to be third but to keep it is going to be very, very difficult.
"While we are there we are going to try to keep it. If we keep progressing during the season, playing matches and winning like we are doing maybe we can be a contender but I think we need more time.
"We can believe but we are not contenders. There are another seven teams and that didn't change. It is game 15. Maybe by game 30 or 32, but not yet."
Villa's victory over Man City was their 14th successive win in the Premier League at Villa Park, equalling a club record that was first set in 1903.
Darren Plant
