Ange Postecoglou insists nobody should be shocked about Aston Villa's rapid progress under Unai Emery.

Since the Spaniard took charge of the club two years ago, only Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool have collected more Premier League points than Villa, who have finished above Sunday's opponents Tottenham in the last two seasons.

"Yeah, great appointment, but it shouldn't surprise anyone, he was an outstanding manager before he got there," Postecoglou said ahead of facing Villa. "He's done an outstanding job and another cautionary tale about writing people off because when he was at Arsenal, people were quick to be dismissive of him.

"Lots of other people's memories have faded. When you're a manager and you see a manager going through what he did, it's firmly imprinted in your mind, it just goes to show, as I said, he was an outstanding manager and for Villa, they identified somebody that could come in and really bring their football club to the levels they wanted to, and he's done that.

"Since he's been there they continue to get stronger and challenge and it'll be a good test for us. Our games against them have been really good.

"Last year, we won at their place and played really well but I thought we played well at our place too but they got on top of us, they got ahead of us for the Champions League last year. It's great competition for us."

Villa boss Emery will turn 53 on Sunday and Postecoglou, the Premier League's oldest manager at 59, joked: "Miserable day for him, I hope! I'm the oldest in the comp mate, so I'm not going to mention birthdays."