Newly appointed Villa boss, Dean Smith, couldn't have got off to a more perfect start as Villa manager as his side beat Swansea City 1-0 at the weekend. 

Tammy Abraham's goal proved to be enough to give the home side the win and it saw Villa rise to 13th in the Championship table, with Smith's side just three points adrift of the play-off positions.

Smith was full of praise for his players after working with the squad in his first week in charge of the club.

Speaking to the club's official website, Smith stated, 'The players are a talented bunch but they are intelligent as well – they are quite tactically astute which has been very pleasing for me.'

The 47-year-old also revealed that he worked on the 'off the ball' scenarios in training as well and he saw progress of the hard work put in on the training field in their win over the Swans at the weekend.

'We worked an awful lot before the Swansea game on what we do out of possession and I thought the lads took a lot of that on well and took it into the game very well.

'We won the ball back in high areas of the pitch, which produced us good opportunities.'

Smith will be hoping that his side can build on the win at the weekend with a positive performance at Carrow Road when Villa travel to face Norwich City.

Daniel Farke's side have been in excellent form this season and come into the game against Villa full of confidence after beating fellow promotion chasers Nottingham Forest 2-1 at the City Ground.

It is sure to be a tightly contested game by two sides who will hope to be challenging for the top six positions towards the end of the season.

The Verdict: 

Smith couldn't have asked for a tougher first away trip to his managerial career at Aston Villa.

Norwich are a side that are in excellent form and will be confident of beating Smith's side who are still adjusting to their new manager's philosophies at the club.

But I think it is likely that we will see Aston Villa challenging for a Play-Off spot this season, as they have already shown signs of going in the right direction with their win over Graham Potter's Swansea side.