Villa versus Nottingham Forest: Top-Flight Match Preview
Introduction
Hello and welcome to this Premier League fixture 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 in third, while Forest are seventeenth and just four points outside of the relegation zone.
Each side are entering the game following a defeat as Villa were defeated 4-1 by league-leading Arsenal and Forest fell 2-0 to Everton.
It will be a tough task for the visitors to come away with all three points with Villa possessing one of the best home forms 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? The answer will be revealed very soon.
The confirmed XIs will drop shortly before kick-off at 12.30pm GMT.
Starting Elevens
The starting XIs have been announced. 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.
Nottingham 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.
Bench: Sels, Morato, Awoniyi, Luiz, Kalimuendo, McAtee, Zinchenko, Savona, Abbott.
Manager Comments
Nottingham Forest manager Sean Dyche has commented on his opponent today:
"He’s [Unai Emery] done a excellent job as a manager there. Their transfer business has been good - spent a lot of money, to be fair, on some top players and they’ve moulded it into a good unit, so definitely a difficult game.
We’ve just demonstrated lately, we’ve faced some of the bigger teams, or the ones that are fancied every year, and done very well against them - and a couple of teams perhaps not as fancied, we struggled more 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, an update that was confirmed by the manager Unai Emery in the lead-up to this match. The boss commented:
"We respect 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 must buy him. We decided two months ago we are not persuaded to sign him, spending the money we need."
League Context
The tables have turned. 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 on two occasions and the current boss is tasked with keeping the club in the top-flight this season. Since being named manager on 21 October, Dyche has secured 10 Premier League points and the side are just outside the relegation zone with 19 games of the season to go.
