🔗 Share this article Aston Villa v Nottingham Forest: Premier League Match Preview Opening Thoughts Welcome everyone to this English top-flight clash between Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest. Aston Villa are the strong favourites to win in this early kick-off as they are excelling this season and are currently in third, while Nottingham Forest are seventeenth and just a handful of points outside of the relegation zone. The two teams are entering the game on the back of a setback as Villa were overcome 4-1 by league-leading Arsenal and Forest lost 2-0 to Everton. It will be a difficult task for Forest to come away with all three points with Villa possessing one of the best home forms in Europe at the moment and they also achieved a team record of 36 wins across all competitions this season. But perhaps it’s a new year and a new narrative? All will become clear very soon. The starting lineups will drop shortly before the start at 12.30pm GMT. Starting Elevens The lineups have been confirmed. Unai Emery has made a quartet of alterations to his starting XI who lost 4-1 to Arsenal in their previous match. Aston Villa: Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Lindelof, Maatsen, Kamara, Tielemans, McGinn, Buendia, Rogers, Watkins. Substitutes: Bizot, Digne, Sancho, Garcia, Carroll, Bogarde, Hemmings, Malen, Jimoh-Aloba. Forest have also made four adjustments to their matchday squad after a 2-0 loss to Everton. Nott’m Forest: Victor, Williams, Murillo, Anderson, Gibbs-White, Dominguez, I Jesus, Hutchinson, Bakwa, Milenkovic, Aina. Bench: Sels, Morato, Awoniyi, Luiz, Kalimuendo, McAtee, Zinchenko, Savona, Abbott. Dugout Insights Nottingham Forest manager Sean Dyche has commented on his opponent today: "He’s [Unai Emery] done a excellent job as a manager there. Their recruitment has been strong - invested a lot of money, to be fair, on some top players and they’ve moulded it into a cohesive team, so definitely a challenging game. We’ve just demonstrated lately, we’ve faced some of the larger clubs, or the ones that are tipped every year, and performed admirably against them - and a couple of teams maybe not as highly-rated, we haven’t done as well against them. That’s probably the test of the group - meeting the expectation of each game rather than just the big games." Player Situation The midfielder has will not be staying at Aston Villa, an update that was confirmed by the manager Emery in the build-up to this match. The boss said: "I am respecting him as much as possible because he’s a very good professional, very respectful. The situation we have with Harvey is this year he is a loan player and if he is playing matches, we are obligated to buy him. We decided two months ago we are not persuaded to sign him, committing the money we need." League Context How times change. This time last year Forest were third in the table, where Villa are now. A lot of things have shifted, including the manager on two occasions and Sean Dyche is tasked with keeping the club in the Premier League this season. Since being named manager on 21 October, Dyche has won 10 Premier League points and the side are just outside the bottom three with 19 games of the season remaining.
Opening Thoughts Welcome everyone to this English top-flight clash between Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest. Aston Villa are the strong favourites to win in this early kick-off as they are excelling this season and are currently in third, while Nottingham Forest are seventeenth and just a handful of points outside of the relegation zone. The two teams are entering the game on the back of a setback as Villa were overcome 4-1 by league-leading Arsenal and Forest lost 2-0 to Everton. It will be a difficult task for Forest to come away with all three points with Villa possessing one of the best home forms in Europe at the moment and they also achieved a team record of 36 wins across all competitions this season. But perhaps it’s a new year and a new narrative? All will become clear very soon. The starting lineups will drop shortly before the start at 12.30pm GMT.
Starting Elevens The lineups have been confirmed. Unai Emery has made a quartet of alterations to his starting XI who lost 4-1 to Arsenal in their previous match. Aston Villa: Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Lindelof, Maatsen, Kamara, Tielemans, McGinn, Buendia, Rogers, Watkins. Substitutes: Bizot, Digne, Sancho, Garcia, Carroll, Bogarde, Hemmings, Malen, Jimoh-Aloba. Forest have also made four adjustments to their matchday squad after a 2-0 loss to Everton. Nott’m Forest: Victor, Williams, Murillo, Anderson, Gibbs-White, Dominguez, I Jesus, Hutchinson, Bakwa, Milenkovic, Aina. Bench: Sels, Morato, Awoniyi, Luiz, Kalimuendo, McAtee, Zinchenko, Savona, Abbott.
Dugout Insights Nottingham Forest manager Sean Dyche has commented on his opponent today: "He’s [Unai Emery] done a excellent job as a manager there. Their recruitment has been strong - invested a lot of money, to be fair, on some top players and they’ve moulded it into a cohesive team, so definitely a challenging game. We’ve just demonstrated lately, we’ve faced some of the larger clubs, or the ones that are tipped every year, and performed admirably against them - and a couple of teams maybe not as highly-rated, we haven’t done as well against them. That’s probably the test of the group - meeting the expectation of each game rather than just the big games."
Player Situation The midfielder has will not be staying at Aston Villa, an update that was confirmed by the manager Emery in the build-up to this match. The boss said: "I am respecting him as much as possible because he’s a very good professional, very respectful. The situation we have with Harvey is this year he is a loan player and if he is playing matches, we are obligated to buy him. We decided two months ago we are not persuaded to sign him, committing the money we need."
League Context How times change. This time last year Forest were third in the table, where Villa are now. A lot of things have shifted, including the manager on two occasions and Sean Dyche is tasked with keeping the club in the Premier League this season. Since being named manager on 21 October, Dyche has won 10 Premier League points and the side are just outside the bottom three with 19 games of the season remaining.