Premier League roundup: Aston Villa, Wolves and Man United make headlines on Matchday 18

We're nearing the halfway point of the 2025-26 Premier League season, and the table remains remarkably close from top to bottom.

Just three points separate Arsenal, Man City and Aston Villa at the top, while just 10 points separate Liverpool in fourth from Bournemouth in 15th.

Matchday 18 of the season took place from Friday, Dec. 26, to Sunday, Dec. 28. Here's a rundown of the top stories that developed across the league.

Aston Villa chased an astonishing record...

The beginning of the 2025-26 season was hard on plenty of teams, but it was especially hard on Birmingham's Aston Villa. The club failed to score in its opening four matches and didn't pick up its first win until Matchday 6. 

"We were in a bad moment," said Villa coach Unai Emery, "but we needed to be resilient and wait to get our best moment."

That "best" moment has well and truly arrived. Villa's hard-fought 2-1 win over Chelsea capped off a remarkable turnaround for the club: it's now won 11 straight matches in all competitions, enough to tie an all-time club record set way back when in 1897. If Villa beats Arsenal on Tuesday, Dec. 30 — something it's absolutely capable of doing — it will slingshot itself into the title race and become the winningest side in 151 years of club history.

The kicker? Many of Villa's most impactful players are long-tenured workhorses, not expensive new signings. Many of them were around during Villa's recent nadir under Steven Gerrard in 2022. Emery started three players in this Chelsea win — goalkeeper Emi Martinez, defender Ezri Konsa and midfielder John McGinn — who also started in Gerrard's dismal final game in charge of the club.

That's resiliency right there. And it's proof of just how important coaching is at the highest level of the game. Under Gerrard, Martinez, Konsa and McGinn were floundering; under Emery, they're on track to make history for all the right reasons. Chelsea 1-2 Aston Villa