Aston Villa versus Forest: Top-Flight Match Preview
Introduction
Greetings and welcome to this Premier League clash between Villa and Forest. Villa will be the strong favourites to win in this early kick-off as they are flying this season and are currently sitting third, while Forest are in 17th position and just a handful of points outside of the relegation zone.
Each side are coming into the game on the back of a setback as Villa were beaten 4-1 by league-leading Arsenal and Forest fell 2-0 to Everton.
This shapes up as a tough task for the visitors to secure all three points with Villa having one of the best home records in Europe at the moment and they also achieved a team record of 36 wins across all competitions this season. But maybe it’s a new year and a new narrative? The answer will be revealed very soon.
The confirmed XIs will drop shortly before the start at 12.30pm GMT.
Team News
The lineups have been confirmed. The Villa boss has made four changes to his first eleven who were defeated by 4-1 to Arsenal last time out.
Villa: Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Lindelof, Maatsen, Kamara, Tielemans, McGinn, Buendia, Rogers, Watkins.
Bench: Bizot, Digne, Sancho, Garcia, Carroll, Bogarde, Hemmings, Malen, Jimoh-Aloba.
Nottingham Forest have likewise 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.
Bench: Sels, Morato, Awoniyi, Luiz, Kalimuendo, McAtee, Zinchenko, Savona, Abbott.
Pre-Match Quotes
Forest boss Sean Dyche has remarked on his opponent today:
"He’s [Unai Emery] done a great job as a manager there. Their signings has been strong - invested a lot of money, to be fair, on some top players and they’ve shaped it into a strong side, 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 perhaps not as fancied, we haven’t done as well against them. That’s probably the test of the group - meeting the challenge of each game rather than just the big games."
Squad News
Harvey Elliott 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 commented:
"We respect him all we can because he’s a top professional, very dedicated. The issue we have with Harvey is this year he is a loan player and if he is featuring regularly, we must buy him. We decided two months ago we are not convinced to make the move permanent, committing the money we would need to."
Season Snapshot
How times change. This time last year Nottingham Forest were in third place in the table, where Villa are now. A lot of things have changed, 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 above the relegation zone with 19 games of the season to go.
