Stoke City boss Mark Hughes still rates Aston Villa as a big club.
Despite Villa's decline over the years, Hughes insists he remains a little puzzled by this season's grave demise.
"You look at their squad and they've got a good group of players, but for whatever reason they haven't been able to have a really consistent run of results to enable them to be solid in the Premier League.
"When Paul was there, maybe the goal posts were moved and he had to work under constraints previous managers didn't have to work under, but I still thought they should be doing better than they are.
"Obviously this weekend there will be a positive feeling around the place and we'll have to be ready for that."
For the big stories and the banter follow us on Twitter: @tribalfootball