Aston Villa will take time to recover from their horror season last time out, Brentford head coach Dean Smith believes.
The Villans finished bottom of the Premier League last season and have struggled to adapt to life in the second tier so far, although the Bees boss believes they did enough to beat Nottingham Forest on Sunday.
And Smith, who is a Villa supporter, hopes to inflict more misery onto his boyhood club before they turn things around.
He said: “It'll take a while for them. The Aston Villa supporters expect to get back to the Premier League.
“They had a terrible season by their standards and they've had a big turnaround. I'm not sure they're back yet.
“They've won one out of six. Hopefully it's the right time to meet them but they did enough to beat Nottingham Forest on Sunday.”
Villa have spent £30million more than they brought in this summer, including a fee of up to £15m for Jonathan Kodjia from Bristol City; a record in the second tier.
Just 20 years earlier, Newcastle paid the same fee, then a world record, for Alan Shearer and Smith believes it is a lot of money to spend in the Championship.
He said: “It shows you how crazy the world of football has gone. Newcastle paid £15million for Alan Shearer who was the record goalscorer in the Premier League. It's a lot of money to pay for a Championship for sure.
“If anyone guaranteed you goals, Alan Shearer did. Newcastle had sold Andy Cole by then. To see that kind of money in what is division two is a lot of money.”
Villa's proud heritage dictates that expectations amongst supporters will be high and the Brentford boss believes those players need to be able to cope with that pressure.
He explained: “I think you need a certain mindset. I remember reading a Sir Alex Ferguson book and he talked about the players and their mentality about playing in front of 75,000 every week.
“Aston Villa and Newcastle are big clubs. You have to have a certain mettle to play in that atmosphere and expectations.”
