Aston Villa boss Unai Emery admits that it's been a 'strange' start to the season from his side after only narrowly missing out on a Champions League place last year.
So far this season, Villa sit second-bottom in the Premier League, on just two points, and have yet to score in the top-flight. Despite bringing in a number of new faces this summer, they visit the Stadium of Light this weekend looking for their first win of the campaign, with Sunderland looking to continue their bright start to the new term.
When asked if the start to the season had felt strange, speaking to Birmingham Live, Emery said: "A little bit.
"A little bit. But keep going. I've had lots of [difficult] moments, even here.
"Three years ago we lost three matches in a row to Arsenal, Leicester and Man City.
"In that moment, I was focusing on our reaction. Today and it's the same. We have started four matches with circumstances we had. Now we are progressively getting better, and the last two matches I felt that progress.
"Now we are working, and we are working really hard and focusing on how we are and what we have to do."
Emery continued: "We are Aston Villa with our circumstances, and we were in a different moment two or three years ago. We are going to start the Europa League next week, and we have a lot of positive things in front of us.
"I am excited to keep and recover consistency in the Premier League, and then there are other competitions. The Europa League is something so special for us."
When asked about the battle with the Black Cats this weekend, Emery pulled no punches. "Difficult," he said when asked about facing Regis Le Bris' side. "They are excited, motivated. I watched the chapters in Netflix about recently the history they had.
"It is fantastic how they are reacting, after they were in League One, Championship and again Premier League. They are so, so motivated, how they achieved it last year.
"We are going to play there in the same form, and mentally we played the last two matches - Everton and Brentford - focused on each match, and thinking how we need to feel strong. The commitment the players showed, I think, is the first step forward we did.
"And now we have to do one thing more, [it] is [to] try to be more clinical with the ball in our attacks better than we did. Of course, we scored the first goal against Brentford on Tuesday, but it was not enough because we didn't win, but it is the way we are working and focusing.
"The focus is Sunday. We are going to focus Sunday in our 100 per cent preparing the players we have to try to get our best. Of course, we need points, and it's the first opportunity that we have in the Premier League after the four matches played.
"We need on Sunday to continue improving, performing, continuing competing and even doing something better than we did the last two matches because we didn't achieve the results we wanted.
"And on Sunday is our challenge. It's our challenge away, Sunderland, for everything [it] means, how they are now, because we need to add some points in the table for us."