You live in the here and now too much, nothing has changed much as Villa apart from the fact that they have a coach who can improve individuals, that doesn't mean there's going to be consistent progression, it just means they are riding a wave which normally happens to these clubs who try and break the top 6, happened with West ham recently too.
Looking over your shoulder at Villa is just small minded thinking, what happens is clubs like Villa reach a peak and when they get to the top their players will get picked off or they just cannot compete with other teams in the top 6 for players, Brigton are managing it because of their incredible footballing infrastructure but these things dont tends to last - look at Leicester.
The only club we should be looking our for is Newcastle because they have the money to break the top 6 and consistently stay there.
ENIC will keep us around those top places by hook or by crook, they have history and until recently we've been on a general upward curve under them, people won't want to admit that but those are the facts.