Just as Unai Emery was celebrating four years in charge, his Aston Villa swept aside the Premier League leaders, ending Manchester City's perfect record in the process.
Villa were well worth the three points on Saturday and it was a victory that had Emery's fingerprints all over it. Nicolas Jackson's two-goal performance only affirming his manager's ability to see something others couldn't. Where the man in Manchester City's dugout, Enzo Maresca, couldn't get a tune out of the Senegalese at Chelsea, Emery has Jackson playing the best football of his career. His brace and performance against City the latest signs of a player rebuilt and revived after two years of struggle in London and Munich.
Of course, the praise and acclaim coming Emery's way for Jackson's revival is well deserved. Just as it is for the way the Basque has managed this Villa team. Only three clubs have gained more points in the Premier League during Emery's time at Villa Park. Twice he has guided the team to Champions League qualification. And last season he led them to the Europa League title, a first victory in Europe since Gary Shaw, Gordon Cowans and the 1982 European champions.
But for all that, you do wonder where this club would be if they didn't have to work within the parameters of the Premier League's Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR). As we say, with every big victory, with every long Cup run, those who drew up this draconian system clubs like Villa must work under should be embarrassed. Ashamed. With men as successful in business as Wes Eden and Nassef Sawiris in charge, Villa are hardly a candidate for a club that needs protecting from itself.
Before he entered the sporting world, Sawiris became Egypt’s wealthiest individual, taking his family's construction empire and turning it into a multi-billion-dollar global industrial powerhouse. Edens was an original Wall Street pioneer before co-founding multi-billion-dollar private equity firm Fortress Investment Group. Yet the Premier League pen pushers, through PSR, are insisting Aston Villa need protecting from men of such track records...?
It's ridiculous. Indeed, it's unfair. This is no nation state pumping billions into a club. It's simply two highly successful men who have spotted an opportunity, bought it and jumped right in. All they want is to be able to compete on a level playing field. And as they've shown in this Emery era, even when the rules and establishment are working so much against them, they continually beat the odds.
The PSR pushers should be ashamed. A great manager. Backed by people of great business success. Villa should be allowed to compete at the top table. Yes, Jackson is a great success story. The scouting and signing of Johan Manzambi another to celebrate. Indeed, where the likes of Manchester United and Tottenham have blown through millions (if not billions) for next-to-no consistent success, Villa have made every penny count. But it shouldn't have to be like that. Edens and Sawaris want to spend more. They want to see this project, this club, reach it's absolute potential. It isn't resources, ability nor experience that is holding Aston Villa back - it's the favoured and the established clique that has pulled up the drawbridge and left the Midlands club to extract the very best they can from the pittance they're forced to work with.
This isn't football. This isn't the spirit of sport. Of competition... level, equal competition. Indeed, this column would argue that the Premier League is hurting itself by not allowing another sleeping giant, a great, famous old club, to realise it's potential and be clear to compete with the likes of City, Arsenal and Liverpool not just on the pitch, but in the transfer market.
Why is it Villa which must rebuild every year? Why is it they who must lose Morgan Rogers, Ezri Konsa and Ollie Watkins to fit into PSR? Why can't Villa not only keep hold of such talent, but be allowed to build on such a group? To be clear to compete for the likes of Enzo Fernandez and Sandro Tonali? Indeed, do you really think either Enzo or Tonali would turn up their nose at the chance to play for Emery if given the right circumstances?
As we say, Villa have the manager, the owners, the fans, the history and the financial power to go toe-to-toe with any club in the country - if given the chance.
For Premier League chiefs, it should be the more competition, the better. Greater interest. More exposure. The headlines won't just be about the demise and falls of Manchester United or Chelsea, but also about the rise of an Aston Villa. A new name for the league to sell across the world. To promote. To bring fresh, new attention to a competition who's title has been recycled through a handful of established giants.
Instead, we're reduced to watching this great club, with it's incredible potential, forced to fight for scraps.
Emery doesn't deserve this. Nor does Sawaris and Edens. Nor do the fans. Aston Villa need to be let off the leash. For the Premier League's sake, as much as their own.