Aston Villa manager Tim Sherwood believes Manchester United are “beatable” and expects his side’s pace on the counter-attack to cause their opponents problems on Saturday.

United are currently in fourth place in the Premier League and are coming off of successive wins over Tottenham and Liverpool.

While Aston Villa have shown new life and separated themselves from the relegation zone since Sherwood first took charge of the club in February.

After losing his first two games to Stoke City and Newcastle, the former Spurs manager would lead the Villans to back-to-back league wins over West Brom and Sunderland before losing his last match against Swansea City.

The 46-year-old manager has also directed the West Midlands club to the FA Cup semi-finals, where they will face the winner of the Blackburn-Liverpool replay.

Sherwood, who was in charge of Tottenham when they defeated United 2-1 at Old Trafford last season, is confident Aston Villa can overcome the odds against them on Saturday.

“I think they are beatable,” Sherwood told the club’s official website.

“They have obviously got a terrific record at Old Trafford but we way it every week, anyone can beat anyone in this division. That’s the beauty of the Premier League.

“We think we are capable of going there and upsetting them. We have a lot of pace on the counter-attack that we are looking to exploit.

“We will show them the respect they deserve. They have done well. They are near the top of the league. But we also need to impose ourselves on them.

“It’s a wonderful place to go and play and the lads enjoy going there.

“There’s not many players who can say they’ve gone there and took positive results. But I think there are a few in our dressing room who have gone there and won.

“So the boys are quite confident that they can do that again. The boys have to do it collectively.

“There’s no better time to do it than when we are at the bottom end of the table.

“I still think it’s an unbelievably tough place to go and play. It’s hard.

“I took a Tottenham team there last season and won quite comfortably. Whether that can be emulated again? I hope so.”

Programming note: Manchester United vs. Aston Villa will be shown LIVE on Saturday at 10:00am EST on NBCSN and NBC Sports Live Extra.