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Unai Emery's Aston Villa march on.
Victory over Wolves was unconvincing. The only moment of certainty came from the foot of Boubacar Kamara, the midfielder arrowing a shot into the top corner from 20 yards to settle the game.
It lifted them to third in the Premier League, a point behind Manchester City in second, and, while talk of a unexpected title fight may seem fanciful at this stage, Villa could soon be in the conversation as Arsenal's nearest challengers.
They have won seven of their past eight top-flight games, a contrast to a difficult start which saw them lose their 12-month unbeaten home record and go out of the Carabao Cup before the end of September.
Kamara's strike lit up an even Midlands derby on Sunday and it was another goal from distance for Villa this season.
Nine of Villa's 16 Premier League goals this season have come from outside the box - the most of any side in 2025-26.
Kamara's blockbuster, which found the top corner, was the latest in a line of long-range strikes.
Matty Cash, Emi Buendia and Morgan Rogers have found the net from distance to aid Villa's rise into the top three.
Bournemouth have scored seven from outside the box, leaders Arsenal just two, while Wolves are yet to score.
For Emery, someone who plans for every detail and demands perfection, Villa's success is no coincidence.
"The players are very comfortable shooting, and they are being clinical, but of course our demand is going more options to try to get goals," he said.
"We need to add goals in different ways."
He added to Sky Sports: "They are practising a lot every training session and shooting like that."
Villa are the only team to have scored more than half their goals from outside the box at this stage of the season in Premier League history.
But, is there a danger they have an over reliance on goals from distance?
It was another blank from Ollie Watkins - on the longest goal drought of his Villa career having failed to score in 11 straight appearances - after he came off the bench.
Replacement Donyell Malen, who scored twice in the Europa League win over Young Boys on Thursday, also rarely threatened.
Wolves goalkeeper Sam Johnstone was never seriously troubled - Kamara's goal aside - and it is unrealistic to expect Villa to maintain a top-four challenge with their current scoring rate.
When asked about a dependency on goals outside the box Emery said: "We are working and analysing everything. Of course, we spoke about it.
"Last year we needed goals. We lost out on the top five with goals [difference]. Always I am worried for something or something we need to improve.
"In our demands, we are trying to identify where we have been weak or where we can get something to clearly improve, even when we are winning.
"We are not scoring a lot of goals. Now we are getting the balance of competing. We are being defensively strong and keeping clean sheets. We want to score goals and individually get numbers."
It was just Kamara's second Premier League goal in 81 appearance for Villa.
"Some players have good ability to shoot from outside the box," the midfielder told Sky Sports. "Sometimes the game is tight and the midfielder or defender tries to make something special."
