Villa against Forest: Premier League Preview
Introduction
Welcome everyone to this Premier League fixture between Aston Villa and Forest. The home side are the expected winners to win in this early kick-off as they are soaring this season and are currently occupying third place, while Forest are in 17th position and just a handful of points outside of the relegation zone.
The two teams are entering the game off of the back of a defeat as Villa were overcome 4-1 by league-leading Arsenal and Forest succumbed 2-0 to Everton.
This promises to be a challenging task for Sean Dyche’s side to come away with all three points with Villa having 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 a new year and a new narrative? We will find out very soon.
The confirmed XIs will be released shortly before kick-off at 12.30pm GMT.
Confirmed Lineups
The starting XIs have been announced. The Villa boss has made a quartet of alterations to his starting lineup 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 likewise made four adjustments to their starting 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.
Dugout Insights
Nottingham Forest manager Sean Dyche has remarked on his counterpart today:
"He’s [Unai Emery] done a excellent job as a manager there. Their signings has been impressive - invested a lot of money, to be fair, on some very good players and they’ve forged it into a cohesive team, so definitely a challenging game.
We’ve just shown lately, we’ve taken on some of the larger clubs, or the ones that are tipped every year, and done very well against them - and a couple of teams perhaps not as highly-rated, we struggled more against them. That’s probably the challenge of the group - rising to the expectation 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 build-up to this match. The boss commented:
"I am respecting 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 are obligated to buy him. We decided two months ago we are not convinced to sign him, committing the money we would need to."
Form Guide
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 changed, including the manager twice and the current boss is tasked with keeping the club in the top-flight this season. Since being appointed 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.