Birmingham City Equal to Liverpool, Manchester City & Even Aston Villa!

As an Aston Villa fan, it pains this writer to admit it, but Birmingham City are really starting to look like a decent team in the Premier League this season.

Their 1-0 away win at Stoke City on Monday made it 11 games unbeaten in the top flight for Birmingham, which is the club's best run since 1908, a whopping 101 years ago!

The unbeaten streak includes seven wins and four draws, which no doubt is quite impressive form.

It was the win at the Britannia Stadium that has really emphasised how good of a side Birmingham City are becoming in England's top professional league.

In that match, they didn't really play well and still managed to grind out a result. It's a clichéd statement, but it's the hallmark of a great team, and that's what Birmingham (unfortunately) could well become.

Cameron Jerome's strike on 50 minutes was the difference between the two sides, but it wouldn't have been had Birmingham 'keeper Joe Hart not pulled off a string of excellent saves.

And the goalkeeper is another sign of a great team. It's a well-known fact that great teams have great goalkeepers.

For example, the mighty Aston Villa have Brad Friedel , the USA' s greatest ever 'keeper. Manchester United have Edwin Van der Sar , Chelsea have Petr Cech , Real Madrid have Iker Casillas , Juventus have Gianluigi Buffon , etc.

Joe Hart is fast becoming a fantastic goalkeeper; his saves against Chelsea were instrumental in securing his side's 0-0 draw with the current Premier League leaders, and again his saves were crucial in Monday's win at Stoke.

Billionaire owner Carson Yeung's takeover at Birmingham has paved the way for manager Alex McLeish to spend millions on new players to help improve their prospects of finishing in the Europa League positions.

From January onwards, that can be used by us Aston Villa fans as an excuse for our arch rivals doing so well.

But for now, as McLeish has not spent a single penny promised to him by the owners, there is no possible explanation for Birmingham City achieving such good results, apart from the fact that they already have some quality players in their ranks, and that Alex McLeish is a very good tactician.

The emergence of teams like Manchester City and Sunderland (to a smaller extent), and the downfall of Liverpool , has meant that the 2009/10 Premier League season is one of the most competitive campaigns yet.

But the main reason it's so competitive perhaps could be down to Birmingham City, the team who are currently in seventh and two points ahead of Liverpool; the very same team that was playing Championship football only last season.