Forget Liverpool & Manchester City, Tottenham Are Aston Villa's Main Threat

After the bitter disappointment of drawing 1-1 against Burnley at Turf Moor, Aston Villa's Champions League hopes received a bigger dent as Tottenham Hotspur proved their top four credentials.

Liverpool and Manchester City might've been too rubbish for each other and neutralised each other's top four threat with a 2-2 draw, but lady luck wasn't on Villa's side in the results department, as Spurs trounced a very poor Wigan Athletic side by a considerable number of goals.

The match was so bad, Jermain Defoe actually got five. You'd hope that would be it, but no, Chris Kirkland wanted an own goal, and Peter Crouch, Aaron Lennon, and Niko Kranjcar all wanted in as the White Hart Lane outfit smashed Wigan Athletic 9-1.

As a fan of Aston Villa, it makes you cringe even more when you think this was the same Wigan team that came up to Villa Park and won 2-0 on the opening day of the season.

And now they're getting beat 9 bloody 1 by Tottenham.

With that lucrative fourth place in the Premier League more up for grabs than it has probably ever been, it's clear that Aston Villa have their work cut out if they are to go one better than last season (when they were serious top four contenders up until March).

In theory there are five teams that can contend for a top four place.

Starting with the most unlikely one, Sunderland are level with last season's Premier League runners-up on 20 points with the same number of games played.

Darren Bent is banging in the goals on Wearside and at the moment they're doing just as good in the league as Liverpool, so despite being long shots, there's a slight top four threat from the Black Cats.

Then there is Liverpool. So following on from the previous paragraph, they're doing so bad in the league that they've lost five already and even Sunderland are level on points with them. Yes, that's right, Sunderland.

If Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres are not present in every league game for the rest of the season, you just cannot see Liverpool retaining their Champions League spot.

Moving on to the team Liverpool drawed with, Manchester City; unless they ditch their newly acquired tag of "draw specialists", all that money will be wasted on a Europa League team next season.

So forget those three teams above, the two main contenders for fourth place are the mighty Aston Villa, and Tottenham Hotspur, who could only put a mere nine past Wigan Athletic.

As painful as it is to admit it, Tottenham do look the strongest in claiming that fourth Champions League position come the end of the season.

On top of great strikers in Jermain Defoe, Peter Crouch, Robbie Keane and Roman Pavlyuchenko (well, he was good once upon a time), they also have considerable threat on the wings in Aaron Lennon and Niko Kranjcar.

Spurs manager Harry Redknapp has developed a disciplined side who use the right tactics in the right situations, and with astute purchases has the quality and strength in-depth to easily achieve a top four finish.

But the main threat for Tottenham comes from Aston Villa.

Despite their recent stalemate at Burnley, Villa also have that quality in their side to get a top four finish.

Villa manager Martin O'Neill has a solid backline in Luke Young, Stephen Warnock, Carlos Cuellar, and Richard Dunne (who, it has to be said, was outstanding for Ireland against France), as well as a very reliable goalkeeper in Brad Friedel, something Tottenham clearly do not with Heurelho Gomes.

Aston Villa may not have the quality of strikers Tottenham have, but in Gabriel Agbonlahor they do have a striker who is a handful for defenders with his good pace and great strength, as well as his top class finishing.

And on the wings, an abundance of goalscoring opportunities are created with the likes of England internationals Ashley Young, Stewart Downing, and James Milner, who has been the most impressive English winger this season.

So as that all-important fourth Premier League position is there for the taking more than it's ever been before, it's clear that despite all the quality Aston Villa have, there are some other serious contenders for that Champions League spot.

And with Tottenham Hotspur smashing nine goals past teams that beat Aston Villa at home, if the Villans are to go one step better than last season, they might well have to hope for a repeat of the 2005/06 food poisoning saga.