FIVE-POINT PLAN

1 WES THE GOALS COMING FROM?

Chelsea loanee Tammy Abraham smashed 25 Championship goals last season – almost a third of Villa’s total of 82. With a Tammy-shaped hole in Smith’s forward line, the burden will now fall across the broad shoulders of record buy Wesley Moraes, the Brazilian who scored 10 goals for Club Brugge in the Belgian First Division last term.

2 HARNESS THE HOLTE END

With record season ticket sales and the Wembley feelgood factor still very much in full swing, the Villa Park faithful can be a powerful, positive force of nature if last season’s mutual appreciation society stays strong through good times and bad.

3 HIRE BUT DON’T FIRE

Having entered the close season with around 17 senior players, Villa were always going to recruit heavily and quickly. This has raised the spectre of Fulham’s summer splurge, but Villa’s hires have been much less scattershot, including former loanees Kortney Hause, Anwar El Ghazi and Tyrone Mings. The big lesson from the Cottagers is not to change the starting XI each week: give them time to settle.

4 KNOW WHO’S BOSS

John Terry, to his credit, faded into the background along with fellow first-team coach Richard O’kelly, as Smith let it be known who’s boss. When Smith remarked on day one that an excited Terry had turned up with his pencil case, it was quite clear who was master and who was apprentice. The rest of the football world would do well to remember that, rather than making it all about Terry on the Premier League legend’s top-flight return on August 10.

5 STRIKE A BALANCE

Villa fans love Smith’s will to win (down to 10 men and throwing on a striker at Rotherham was a big winning moment in their promotion charge), and it was a welcome antidote to the stodgy style of his predecessor. However, despite his promise to go toe to toe with the big boys, the 48-year-old knows that a pragmatic approach will sometimes be needed for a team that conceded 61 league goals last season.