Dundee United manager Peter Houston is not surprised in the least to see Kilmarnock become the Clydesdale Bank Premier League's form team.
Houston watched Mixu Paatelainen's side beat Hearts a fortnight ago and went away thinking they looked more like a comfortable top six team than the relegation candidates everyone had predicted.
The United boss said: "I have said all along that outwith the Old Firm, anybody can beat anybody. That's the way the league is this year and Kilmarnock are showing that just now."
Paatelainen took over in the summer after Jimmy Calderwood saved Killie from relegation last season and is working with largely the same group of players.
However, the addition of Finland international Alexei Eremenko by the former Cowdenbeath and Hibernian boss has been a masterstroke and Houston has nothing but admiration for the job his fellow manager has done so far.
He said: "I saw their good run coming because I saw them for myself at Hearts and they were brilliant that day. They were down the table, but I remember thinking they looked like a top six team and they have kept that form going.
"I looked at their team from the other night, we had Stevie Campbell there and we had Dave Bowman watching them on Saturday against St Johnstone at Perth. The reports from those games were impressive, but there are only three players new to the team.
"They have brought in Eremenko, Ben Gordon and the lad (Mohamadou) Sissoko, but the rest of them have been playing for Killie for years.
"I think Mixu has done really well and he has got the shape of his team the way he wants and is using the his players well.
"He has taken the squad he inherited, added a few players and is getting the best out of them."
Source: PA
