Aston Villa v Nottingham Forest: Premier League Match Preview
Preamble
Welcome everyone to this English top-flight encounter between Villa and Nottingham Forest. Villa will be the favourites to win in this early kick-off as they are soaring this season and are currently sitting third, while Forest are seventeenth and just a handful of points outside of the drop zone.
Both clubs are coming into the game following a defeat as Villa were overcome 4-1 by top-of-the-table Arsenal and Forest fell 2-0 to Everton.
It will be a tough task for the visitors to secure all three points with Villa boasting one of the best home records in Europe at the moment and they also recorded a club record of 36 wins across all competitions this season. But perhaps it’s a new year and a new narrative? The answer will be revealed very soon.
The starting lineups will be released shortly before kick-off at 12.30pm GMT.
Starting Elevens
The lineups have been confirmed. Unai Emery has made four changes to his starting lineup who were defeated by 4-1 to Arsenal in their previous match.
Villa: Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Lindelof, Maatsen, Kamara, Tielemans, McGinn, Buendia, Rogers, Watkins.
Substitutes: Bizot, Digne, Sancho, Garcia, Carroll, Bogarde, Hemmings, Malen, Jimoh-Aloba.
Nottingham Forest have likewise made four changes to their starting squad after a 2-0 loss to Everton.
Nottingham Forest: Victor, Williams, Murillo, Anderson, Gibbs-White, Dominguez, I Jesus, Hutchinson, Bakwa, Milenkovic, Aina.
Substitutes: Sels, Morato, Awoniyi, Luiz, Kalimuendo, McAtee, Zinchenko, Savona, Abbott.
Pre-Match Quotes
Forest boss Sean Dyche has said on his opponent today:
"He has done a excellent job as a manager there. Their transfer business has been good - spent a lot of money, to be fair, on some top players and they’ve forged it into a good unit, so definitely a challenging game.
We’ve just shown lately, we’ve played against some of the top sides, or the ones that are favoured every year, and done very well against them - and a couple of teams perhaps not as fancied, we haven't performed as strongly against them. That’s probably the challenge of the group - meeting the challenge of each game rather than just the big games."
Squad News
The midfielder has will not be staying at Aston Villa, news that was revealed by the manager Unai Emery in the build-up to this match. The boss commented:
"I am respecting him all we can because he’s a excellent professional, very dedicated. The problem we have with Harvey is this year he is a loan player and if he is playing matches, we must buy him. We decided two months ago we are not persuaded to sign him, committing the money we would need to."
Season Snapshot
The tables have turned. This time last year Nottingham Forest were third in the table, where Villa are now. A lot of things have altered, including the manager on two occasions and the current boss is tasked with keeping the club in the top-flight this season. Since being named manager on 21 October, Dyche has accumulated 10 Premier League points and the side are just outside the relegation zone with 19 games of the season remaining.
