Aston Villa v Forest: Top-Flight Match Preview
Preamble
Greetings and welcome to this Premier League clash between Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest. The home side are the favourites to win in this early kick-off as they are flying this season and are currently in third, while Forest are seventeenth and just a handful of points outside of the relegation zone.
Both clubs are coming into the game on the back of a setback as Villa were defeated 4-1 by top-of-the-table Arsenal and Forest fell 2-0 to Everton.
This shapes up as a difficult task for the visitors to come away with all three points with Villa having 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 perhaps it’s a new year and a new narrative? All will become clear very soon.
The confirmed XIs will be announced 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 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 changes to their matchday squad after a 2-0 defeat 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.
Manager Comments
Forest boss Sean Dyche has commented on his counterpart 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 forged it into a strong side, so certainly a difficult game.
We’ve just shown lately, we’ve faced some of the bigger teams, or the ones that are tipped every year, and done very well against them - and a couple of teams maybe not as highly-rated, we struggled more against them. That’s likely the challenge of the group - rising to the expectation of each game rather than just the major fixtures."
Transfer Update
The midfielder has no future at Aston Villa, news that was revealed by the manager Unai Emery in the lead-up to this match. The boss commented:
"I am respecting him as much as possible because he’s a excellent professional, very respectful. The problem we have with Harvey is this year he is on loan and if he is playing matches, we are obligated to buy him. We made the decision two months ago we are not convinced to make the move permanent, committing the money we need."
League Context
How times change. 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 Sean Dyche is tasked with keeping the club in the Premier League this season. Since being appointed on 21 October, Dyche has accumulated 10 Premier League points and the side are just above the relegation zone with 19 games of the season to go.
