🔗 Share this article Aston Villa against Nottingham Forest: Premier League Preview Opening Thoughts Welcome everyone to this English top-flight clash between Villa and Forest. Aston Villa are the expected winners to win in this early kick-off as they are excelling this season and are currently in third, while Forest are 17th and just four points outside of the drop zone. The two teams are coming into the game on the back of a loss as Villa were overcome 4-1 by league-leading Arsenal and Forest lost 2-0 to Everton. This shapes up as a difficult task for the visitors to obtain all three points with Villa possessing one of the best home forms in Europe at the moment and they also recorded a team record of 36 wins across all competitions this season. But maybe it’s new year, new story? All will become clear very soon. The confirmed XIs 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 lineup who lost 4-1 to Arsenal in their previous match. Villa: Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Lindelof, Maatsen, Kamara, Tielemans, McGinn, Buendia, Rogers, Watkins. Bench: Bizot, Digne, Sancho, Garcia, Carroll, Bogarde, Hemmings, Malen, Jimoh-Aloba. Forest have likewise made four changes to their starting squad after a 2-0 loss to Everton. Nott’m 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 commented on his opponent today: "He has done a fantastic job as a manager there. Their transfer business has been good - spent a lot of money, to be fair, on some very good players and they’ve shaped it into a good unit, so definitely a difficult game. We’ve just shown lately, we’ve played against some of the larger clubs, or the ones that are fancied every year, and performed admirably against them - and a couple of teams maybe 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 major fixtures." Transfer Update The midfielder has no future at Aston Villa, news that was stated by the manager Emery in the build-up to this match. The boss said: "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 on loan and if he is featuring regularly, we must buy him. We decided two months ago we are not persuaded to sign him, committing the money we would need to." Form Guide What a difference a year makes. This time last year Forest were in third place in the table, where Aston Villa are now. A lot of things have altered, including the manager on two occasions and Sean Dyche is charged with keeping the club in the Premier League this season. Since being appointed on 21 October, Dyche has secured 10 Premier League points and the side are just outside the bottom three with 19 games of the season to go.
Opening Thoughts Welcome everyone to this English top-flight clash between Villa and Forest. Aston Villa are the expected winners to win in this early kick-off as they are excelling this season and are currently in third, while Forest are 17th and just four points outside of the drop zone. The two teams are coming into the game on the back of a loss as Villa were overcome 4-1 by league-leading Arsenal and Forest lost 2-0 to Everton. This shapes up as a difficult task for the visitors to obtain all three points with Villa possessing one of the best home forms in Europe at the moment and they also recorded a team record of 36 wins across all competitions this season. But maybe it’s new year, new story? All will become clear very soon. The confirmed XIs 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 lineup who lost 4-1 to Arsenal in their previous match. Villa: Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Lindelof, Maatsen, Kamara, Tielemans, McGinn, Buendia, Rogers, Watkins. Bench: Bizot, Digne, Sancho, Garcia, Carroll, Bogarde, Hemmings, Malen, Jimoh-Aloba. Forest have likewise made four changes to their starting squad after a 2-0 loss to Everton. Nott’m 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 commented on his opponent today: "He has done a fantastic job as a manager there. Their transfer business has been good - spent a lot of money, to be fair, on some very good players and they’ve shaped it into a good unit, so definitely a difficult game. We’ve just shown lately, we’ve played against some of the larger clubs, or the ones that are fancied every year, and performed admirably against them - and a couple of teams maybe 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 major fixtures."
Transfer Update The midfielder has no future at Aston Villa, news that was stated by the manager Emery in the build-up to this match. The boss said: "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 on loan and if he is featuring regularly, we must buy him. We decided two months ago we are not persuaded to sign him, committing the money we would need to."
Form Guide What a difference a year makes. This time last year Forest were in third place in the table, where Aston Villa are now. A lot of things have altered, including the manager on two occasions and Sean Dyche is charged with keeping the club in the Premier League this season. Since being appointed on 21 October, Dyche has secured 10 Premier League points and the side are just outside the bottom three with 19 games of the season to go.