Crystal Palace manager Alan Pardew believes there are no easy games early on in the Premier League.

Speaking ahead of the Eagles’ home clash against Aston Villa this weekend, Pardew admitted the level playing field of the season’s opening exchanges make life difficult for everyone.

Only as the season goes on and teams find their place in the pecking order can any side claim an advantage over an opponent.

He said: “I think all teams at the start of the season are dangerous because most of them have not had a bloody nose.

Columnist: I dabbled briefly with Aston Villa before seeing sense and coming back to Crystal Palace

“They all have their ambitions for the season intact and no one’s knocked it out of them.”

He added: “The first two months is a real tough period to win games in the Premier League, and it’s why the top teams don’t always go flying away with it at the start.

“Aston Villa will come here expecting to win and there’s no reason to doubt that.”

Pardew’s team enter the game off the back of a 2-1 defeat at home to Arsenal last weekend.

Despite the scoreline, Pardew readily admitted that the better team won on the day.

“We lost to Arsenal, but it was a cracking game. I thought it was a great day for the club,” he said.

“We played well and our fans were superb, but we got beaten by the better team.

“I was really pleased with the performance and we need to turn that into results at home, and we need to win more than half our home games this year. I think we can do that.”

Both teams go into Saturday’s game off the back of defeats, with Villa having lost 1-0 to Manchester United on Friday night.

Pardew said: “Villa have started well. Tim [Sherwood] has bought in a whole new batch of players and it’s very difficult to get them to know what he wants.

“The two games they’ve played so far they’ve been very cohesive and I think Tim will be pleased with that, and obviously they’ve got talent there and Tim knows that, it will be a difficult game.”