Howe upbeat despite no fairytale start for Bournemouth

Jordan Amavi, Jordan Ayew, Jose Crespo, Rudy Gestede, Jordan Veretout, Idrissa Gueye and Micah Richards could all make their Villa bows but Sherwood wants to ensure they are up to speed to face Bournemouth.

“I felt for long periods of the game we were the better team”, Howe said after the match.

Much is expected of Villa after their influx of signings, but the manager was keen to stress that their players might take some time to settle and then begin to impress. “We’ve signed a lot of new players, and lost some very important players to our team”.

Midfielder Marc Pugh headed wide and shot straight at Villa keeper Brad Guzan while Dan Gosling blasted over for the hosts.

Demoralised by their FA Cup final thrashing against Arsenal in May, the mood at Villa was hardly lifted by the pre-season departures of Benteke and Fabian Delph, who joined Manchester City, but this was the kind of gritty display they will need to replicate on a regular basis to avoid a repeat of last season’s relegation battle. Max Gradel came on and produced some lovely flicks to set up attacks and Ritchie sparked back into life, but some seriously impressive defending from Richards, who got his head to every ball that was floated in, foiled the Cherries’ chances of a late equaliser. They play good football.

Not one to be overrawed by the big occasion, Sherwood was methodical in his approach to the game, saying “We have to go there at some stage and we’re going down there confident that we can do the job”. And today we finally get to see the new-look Aston Villa in action for the first time. “Rudy helped us with that”.

“Everyone is looking forward to the new season and I’m delighted to be going into the opening game on Saturday knowing my long-term future has been sorted”.

[ RELATED: Latest Premier League standings ]. As ever, it’s a classic test of how quickly they can adapt to the top level, melding quality, pass-and-move football with a much-needed ruthless streak.