Sunderland striker Jermain Defoe knows Tim Sherwood will have Aston Villa fired up for their meeting this weekend.

Defoe worked under Sherwood at Tottenham for a month last season before joining Toronto.

He told safc.com: "He always wants you to go out and just express yourself; to go out and play and just enjoy the game.

"He wants you to just work hard as well, always high-intensity not just in the games, even in training.

"When he first took over at Tottenham he just wanted to get the lads fit so we could play that high-intensity game for the full 90 minutes."