There should be no comparison between Manchester United and Aston Villa. Aston Villa is more of a coordinated club than Manchester United.
And get it clear now, Manchester United can never follow in the same pathway followed by the blues last season, Chelsea employed a poor coach who have never managed a club that has moved pass the top ten in the Premier League. That said, Graham Potter has never managed a big club like Chelsea not to even talk about the pressure that comes from the Champions League.
He was given too much time amd yet nothing positive came up. Erik Ten Hag is different, for if you have seen Erik Ten Hag manage Ajax against Real Madrid and other clubs in the Champions League, you won't be saying this. Erik Ten Hag just needs a proper defensive midfielder and new set of defenders.
The EPL is in currently in the 12th week, not even up to half way the tournament yet, which means that Manchester United still have about 26 matches left to correct their mistakes and try getting into the top four, well they might be 5 points behind Aston Villa currently but that doesn't mean Aston Villa would finish above them, let's take for instance,Newcastle where performing better than Manchester united at some point last season but united managed to finish 3rd position above them when the season ended.
Well I've heard several rumors about united replacing Erik Ten Hag and several names where mentioned for his replacement including Graham Potter, i doubt if replacing ETH with Potter would be possible cause that's like moving from grace to grass and I don't think the Glaziers would want to make such terrible mistake, i think if they're to replace ETH it would be with a more quality manager with Same or better experience than him, not some Potter.
Those people that are saying ETH out and that he's not a good coach have forget so soon how he helped them win a trophy and even qualified for UCL and participated in the FA Cup finals, I bet most of them didn't even watch him coach at Ajax and that he won several titles with them and had a good UCL record with a team made up of young and vibrant players of which some have now become top players and are in big teams, Erik Ten Hag is a good coach, all he needs is more time and resources, coupled with the right players at different depths of the squad to get them doing better again like they did the previous season, well they're currently in the 6th position which is not actually bad what they need is to work together as a team, to do better and move up in the standings.
We will once again conclude that Ten Hag cannot be entirely blamed for Man United decline in performance this season, and the current rumors replacing his position as manager are just a figment of the imagination. However, I am a little hesitant to say that they can finish in the top four of the standings this season and will play again in the UCL next season. it is not without reason that we have seen, the consistency shown by the four clubs currently in the UCL zone.
To overtake Aston Villa, I think even if not immediately, at least Tottenham will help indirectly in Week 13 by beating Aston Villa. At the same time United must succeed in winning the match over Everton, if this is realized then their points gap will only be 1 point. Furthermore, Unai Emery squad will lose points when they face City and Arsenal in december.