Aston Villa are certainly one of the most feared teams to come up against this season, and under the management of Dean Smith, they look as dangerous as ever. 

Smith has taken Villa up the table and into promotion contention, which will please the Villa Park faithful, many of whom will be dreaming of a return to the top-flight.

It's sure to be a hectic and potentially season-defining festive set of fixtures where Villa will look to break into the top six and put the pressure on their promotion rivals for the remainder of the season.

The likes of Tammy Abraham and John McGinn have played a starring role in firing Aston Villa up the table and they will be keen to build on that impressive form when they take on Stoke at Villa Park on Saturday.

Dean Smith will be keen to show the fans exactly why he was highly sought after when drafted in by the Villa board, and he is looking like one of the signings of the season as he continues Villa's remarkable turnaround.

We look at the reasons why this season is Villa's best chance of returning to the Premier League.

Have a look at the reasons why, here....

I haven't seen a Championship team with this much attacking quality in recent years.

Dean Smith has a number of players that could arguably be playing at a higher level, and he needs to win promotion this season, as he won't have better options in attack for a considerable amount of time.

Only West Brom have scored more goals than Villa this season and Dean Smith will be hoping they can continue to score goals for the remainder of this years campaign.

Dean Smith is certainly justifying the hype he received when he took over his boyhood club earlier in the season.

He has led Aston Villa from relegation threatened, to play-off contenders in his short spell in charge of the club so far.

If Villa don't win promotion this season, then there are sure to be many Premier League clubs that will be tempted to bring him in as manager of their respective teams.

The likes of Jack Grealish and John McGinn are just a small number of names that are surely going to attract interest in the future if Villa aren't promoted.

They also have Tammy Abraham, Axel Tuanzebe and Yannick Bolasie who will all return to their parent clubs after this season, and they will surely be attracting interest from fellow Premier League sides after impressing this year.