This season is different from the previous season because this season Aston Villa made a lot of progress in their squad and even managed to beat Manchester City. I think we will see a new team that will try to thwart Arsenal mission to win the title. But for now I still believe that Manchester City will be able to defend their title this season because they still give other teams the opportunity to step over them before the time comes for them to become leaders of the standings again.
Aston villa has really showed and put in more effort this season than last season, there winnings this season has proven that and also considering the fact that they won, man city, arsenal, Tottenham show's the fact that Aston villa's head coach has up his game. But for me i don't think they will find it easy to surpass liverpool, arsenal and mancity to win the league. Man city won't give in to that but lets keep our fingers crossed and see what happens.