Aston Villa v Forest: Premier League Match Preview
Opening Thoughts
Greetings and welcome to this English top-flight clash between Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest. Villa will be the strong favourites to win in this early kick-off as they are soaring this season and are currently sitting third, while Forest are 17th and just a handful of points outside of the relegation zone.
Each side are coming into the game following a defeat as Villa were overcome 4-1 by league-leading Arsenal and Forest fell 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 records in Europe at the moment and they also set 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 confirmed XIs will be released shortly before the start at 12.30pm GMT.
Confirmed Lineups
The team news is in. Unai Emery has made four changes to his first eleven 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 defeat 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.
Dugout Insights
Nottingham Forest manager Sean Dyche has remarked on his opponent today:
"He’s [Unai Emery] done a excellent job as a manager there. Their transfer business has been good - invested a lot of money, to be fair, on some top players and they’ve forged it into a good unit, so certainly a tough game.
We’ve just demonstrated lately, we’ve faced some of the larger clubs, or the ones that are fancied every year, and held our own against them - and a couple of teams maybe not as fancied, we haven’t done as well against them. That’s probably the test of the group - rising to the expectation of each game rather than just the big games."
Player Situation
The midfielder has no future at Aston Villa, news that was confirmed by the manager Emery in the build-up to this match. The boss stated:
"We respect him as much as possible because he’s a very good professional, very respectful. The issue 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 convinced to sign him, committing the money we need."
Season Snapshot
How times change. This time last year Forest were third in the table, where Aston Villa are now. A lot of things have shifted, including the manager twice and the current boss is charged 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 above the bottom three with 19 games of the season to go.
