Aston Villa continued their strong start to the new Premier League season on Saturday with a win over Wolves at Molineux. 

Dean Smith's side have now won six of ten games and are comfortably in mid-table despite the fact they'll have two matches in hand on most Premier League teams by the end of the weekend. 

While the likes of Jack Grealish and Ollie Watkins will take most of the plaudits for Villa really pushing on from narrowly escaping relegation last season, they've made significant improvements defensively as well. 

Last term they conceded just shy of 1.8 goals per game - this season that average has dropped to 1.3, despite the Premier League in general seeing a lot more goals fly in. 

A key figure in that shift towards being more resolute at the back is summer signing Emiliano Martinez, who Aston Villa signed from Arsenal during the summer. 

Playing in all ten of Villa's Premier League games so far, he's recorded five clean sheets and 28 saves - including a staggering seven stops on Sunday.

However, journalist Gregg Evans believes Martinez has actually been unlucky this season, because his track record could be even better if he hadn't come up against so many unstoppable goals. 

In The Athletic's discussion thread, he said: "I think Martinez has been really unlucky this season because he's conceded far more than his performances should have allowed. The problem is, he's been beaten by lots of unstoppable strikes. Today he showed his value and why signing him this summer was a really shrewd move."

Aston Villa stars Matty Cash and Emiliano Martinez in th Premier League

GIVEMESPORT's Christy Malyan says...

During his emergence at Arsenal in the second half of last season, the Argentine looked like a player who had been desperately waiting for his chance to shine, knowing he was more than good enough to play at Premier League level. 

His early showings for Villa prove that his strong form for the Gunners was no fluke and he's indeed a very capable goalkeeper. Prior to Sunday's games, no Premier League goalkeeper had managed more clean sheets than him. 

He seems to have joined the right level of club, too. Villa aren't reliant on him to constantly keep opposition attacks at bay, but he is still needed to pop up and produce top-class saves in crucial moments. 

That allows Martinez to show off his ability without being over-exposed, and I completely agree with Evans - he's one of the Premier League's best signings of the summer.