Scott Dann has warned his Crystal Palace teammates to be wary of promoted Sheffield United.
United play their first home match of the season since coming up from the Championship in front of a likely raucous atmosphere at Bramall Lane on Sunday.
The Blades snatched a point in their season opener at Bournemouth on Saturday and Dann expects a tricky test as due to being a total unknown quantity.
“It’s never easy to play anyone in this league. But sometimes the teams coming up, you don’t necessarily know how they’re going to fare,” he told Palace TV. “A lot of the teams coming up, in the early part of the season, hit the ground running.
“It will be tough going there, I’ve played there previously in the Championship when I was at Coventry. It’s a tough place to go, so we won’t underestimate them.
“I’m sure it will be a really tough game and hopefully we can go there and get the right result and put in a similar type of performance [against Everton] and hopefully get a few goals as well.”
The 32-year-old is expected to line up in the heart of the Palace defence again and feels he is back to his best after recovering from a year out with a serious knee ligament injury.
“I managed to play the last eight or nine games, which was nice to get back,” he said. “But I wouldn’t say I was fully fit back then even though I felt really good.
“Going away in the off-season gives that little bit more time to recover and come back to try to have a good pre-season. I’m looking forward to the season now and hopefully we can keep putting in performances like that [against Everton].