Aston Villa v Nottingham Forest: Premier League Match Preview
Introduction
Hello and welcome to this English top-flight encounter between Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest. Aston Villa are the expected winners to win in this lunchtime start as they are flying this season and are currently in third, while Forest are 17th and just a handful of points outside of the drop zone.
Each side are entering the game following a defeat as Villa were defeated 4-1 by top-of-the-table Arsenal and Forest succumbed 2-0 to Everton.
This shapes up as a challenging task for Forest to secure all three points with Villa having one of the best home records in Europe at the moment and they also achieved a club record of 36 wins across all competitions this season. But maybe it’s new year, new story? All will become clear very soon.
The team news will be announced shortly before kick-off at 12.30pm GMT.
Starting Elevens
The lineups have been confirmed. The Villa boss has made a quartet of alterations to his starting XI who lost 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 adjustments to their starting 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
Nottingham Forest manager Sean Dyche has said on his counterpart today:
"He has done a excellent job as a manager there. Their recruitment has been good - invested a lot of money, to be fair, on some excellent players and they’ve moulded it into a cohesive team, so certainly a difficult game.
We’ve just demonstrated lately, we’ve taken on some of the top sides, 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 performed as strongly against them. That’s probably the test of the group - rising to the expectation of each game rather than just the big games."
Transfer Update
The midfielder has will not be staying at Aston Villa, news that was stated by the manager Unai Emery in the lead-up to this match. The boss said:
"We respect him all we can because he’s a top professional, very respectful. The issue we have with Harvey is this year he is a loan player and if he is playing matches, we must buy him. We made the decision two months ago we are not persuaded to sign him, committing the money we would need to."
League Context
What a difference a year makes. This time last year Forest were in third place in the table, where Villa are now. A lot of things have altered, including the manager twice and the current boss is charged 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 outside the relegation zone with 19 games of the season to go.
