Saturday 21 February 2015 13:05, UK
Stoke will be ready for Aston Villa's "new manager bounce" on Saturday, according to Mark Hughes.
Hughes' side provide the opposition in Tim Sherwood's first game in charge, although the new manager's half-time words of encouragement helped inspire last week's FA Cup victory over Leicester.
And Stoke's players have been warned to expect a more positive Villa than the side that has scored just 12 goals in 25 league games.
Hughes said: "They have a new manager and will have something of a new manager bounce. They will want to impress.
"We have to be aware of that. We don't expect anything else and we have to be ready. They have a new manager in place and he comes across as a very positive guy.
"You still look at Villa's squad and think they should be doing better. I don't know why they've struggled so much. It will be a challenge for us but we look forward to it.
One of those 12 Villa goals was an Andreas Weimann winner at the Britannia on the opening day of the season, and Stoke make the short trip to Birmingham on the back of successive 4-1 defeats.
But Hughes said: "We've been doing okay, we've had a couple of poor results but prior to that we had a good run. I wouldn't think anyone will take us lightly as we've proved for long periods we can cause people problems."
Stoke's hopes of repeating last season's win at Villa have risen with the return to training of several first-teamers.
Jon Walters, Marc Wilson, Erik Pieters and Stephen Ireland all have a chance of playing, but Ryan Shawcross is still out with a back injury.
