Sheffield Wednesday kick-off their 2016/17 season in front of the SKY TV cameras this afternoon with what promises to be one of their toughest fixtures of the campaign against Aston Villa.
The Owls began last season as something of an unknown entity following a summer of change at Hillsborough but on the back of their run to their play-off final and adding more quality and depth to their squad this pre-season the Owls are being tipped to be among the contenders.
Villa suffered relegation from the top flight for the first time in almost 30 years last season but having retained most of their squad and brought in key players they will be expected to bounce straight back to the top flight. Roberto Di Matteo, a Champions League winning manager with Chelsea, is the man tasked with leading the Villans back to the Premier League.
Carlos Carvalhal has an almost fully fit squad to choose from but is without experienced defender Glenn Loovens who is sidelined for 2 months due to injury sustained early in pre-season. Centre-back is perhaps the position in which the Owls have least strength in depth and they will need Sam Hutchinson to be fit to line up alongside Tom Lees.
Former Sunderland striker Steven Fletcher will hope to make is Owls debut as will playmaker Almen Abdi and winger Will Buckley, signed from Sunderland and Watford respectively.
Aston Villa could field high-profile summer signing Ross McCormack. The former Leeds and Fulham striker has been one of the most prolific forwards in the Championship in recent seasons. Defender Tommy Elphick and goalkeeper Pierluigi Gollini are also in line to make debuts.
The two teams have not met since 2001 when Wednesday won 1-0 at Villa Park in the League Cup but Aston Villa have won on their last 3 visits to S6.