Villa against Forest: Top-Flight Preview
Opening Thoughts
Hello and welcome to this English top-flight encounter between Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest. Villa will be the strong favourites to win in this early kick-off as they are flying this season and are currently occupying third place, while Nottingham 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 lost 2-0 to Everton.
This shapes up as a challenging task for the visitors to secure all three points with Villa having one of the best home forms in Europe at the moment and they also recorded a club record of 36 wins across all competitions this season. But perhaps itās a new year and a new narrative? The answer will be revealed very soon.
The confirmed XIs will be announced shortly before the start at 12.30pm GMT.
Confirmed Lineups
The lineups have been confirmed. The Villa boss 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.
Bench: Bizot, Digne, Sancho, Garcia, Carroll, Bogarde, Hemmings, Malen, Jimoh-Aloba.
Nottingham Forest have also 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
Forest boss Sean Dyche has said on his opponent today:
"He has done a excellent job as a manager there. Their recruitment has been strong - invested a lot of money, to be fair, on some very good players and theyāve forged it into a cohesive team, so definitely a challenging game.
Weāve just shown lately, weāve faced some of the bigger teams, or the ones that are favoured every year, and done very well against them - and a couple of teams maybe not as fancied, we haven't performed as strongly against them. Thatās likely the challenge of the group - rising to the challenge of each game rather than just the major fixtures."
Player Situation
The midfielder has will not be staying at Aston Villa, news that was stated by the manager Emery in the build-up to this match. The boss stated:
"I am respecting him as much as possible because heās a excellent professional, very dedicated. The situation 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 persuaded to make the move permanent, spending the money we need."
Form Guide
The tables have turned. This time last year Nottingham Forest were third in the table, where Aston Villa are now. A lot of things have changed, including the manager twice and the current boss is charged with keeping the club in the Premier League this season. Since being named manager 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 remaining.
