Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill expects Afonso Alves to come good for Middlesbrough.

Ahead of last night's 1-1 draw, O'Neill said: "They obviously have high hopes for the new centre-forward (Alves) so it's a hard game for us.

"Alves is a big signing who has cost a lot of money. I wouldn't know him intimately at all, but I know his reputation as much as anything.

"But they will be expecting big things of him over the next couple of seasons."