I'm still sticking with my preferred choice, which is Aston Villa.
It would be very difficult for Aston Villa to replicate their form of last season, they now play in the Champions League, thus more games, a game every 3 days means a tighter schedule, more fatigue and it is difficult for smaller teams to cope with it. In the 2022/2023 season, Newcastle were the dark horse, look what happened to them in 23/24 season when they played in the CL, i fear that's what's going to happen to Aston Villa this season. I might also add that they lost Douglas Luiz, who moved to Juventus, he was a very important player for them last season.
Aston villa this season again made history after being able to qualify for the Champions League again, their performance last season with Unai Emery was indeed very extraordinary and even quite surprising for us to see them with a makeshift squad actually able to compete in the big 4 zone, this season will certainly be a very different season from what happened last season, the tight schedule will certainly be a challenge for Aston Villa and I think they must be able to overcome that although it is unlikely that they will be able to do so considering the number of star players their has thrown away in the summer transfer market, to be honest, I think Aston Villa will still be able to compete in the Premier League but looking at their experience last season which was difficult in the Conference League, of course we can't expect much from them in the Champions League this season although Unai Emery is an experienced coach in European competitions so far.