SOUNESS: We have got a thrilling, five-team title race that's too tough to call

Before this season, it seemed like the Premier League was turning into a fight for Middle Eastern superiority, as Qatar looked to join Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia on our football map with their bid to buy Manchester United.

It has not turned out that way in the first five months — and not only because Qatar failed to get the keys to Old Trafford.

The top of the table is wide open at the half-way stage, with a handful of points separating the top five clubs. As usual, the Premier League is making fools of those who lazily presumed that just because Liverpool hammered Manchester United 7-0 last season, they would do the same again this time. That just because Crystal Palace were 15th, they would lose at Manchester City.

But even I didn’t anticipate a season like this one. I genuinely believe any one of those five teams could win it — and, yes, I do include in that the excellent Aston Villa squad who are thriving under Unai Emery.

We’re looking at possibly the most exciting Premier League title race in years.

Villa are the unexpected ticket, of course. I vividly remember taking my son, James, to Villa Park on a Friday evening in August 2015 for their first home game of the season. I told him: ‘You’ll enjoy this night. This is a big club.’ But the experience still took him by surprise. He walked in and was silent for five or six seconds — taking in the vastness of the stadium, the impressive stands, the Holte End.

We’re talking about a huge club in England’s second largest city. There have been tens of thousands of dormant Villa supporters just waiting for this. The effect is like a snowball, rolling down a hill.

You’d be a fool to discount them from the equation because they have wealthy owners, Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens, who