Aston Villa versus Forest: Premier League Match Preview
Opening Thoughts
Welcome everyone to this Premier League clash between Villa and Forest. Aston Villa are the expected winners to win in this lunchtime start as they are flying this season and are currently sitting third, while Forest are seventeenth and just four points outside of the drop zone.
Each side are entering the game following a defeat as Villa were beaten 4-1 by top-of-the-table Arsenal and Forest succumbed 2-0 to Everton.
This promises to be a challenging task for Sean Dyche’s side to obtain all three points with Villa possessing 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 maybe it’s new year, new story? We will find out very soon.
The confirmed XIs will be announced shortly before kick-off at 12.30pm GMT.
Team News
The lineups have been confirmed. The Villa boss has made a quartet of alterations to his first eleven who lost 4-1 to Arsenal last time out.
Aston Villa: Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Lindelof, Maatsen, Kamara, Tielemans, McGinn, Buendia, Rogers, Watkins.
Bench: Bizot, Digne, Sancho, Garcia, Carroll, Bogarde, Hemmings, Malen, Jimoh-Aloba.
Forest have likewise made four changes to their starting squad after a 2-0 loss 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.
Dugout Insights
Forest boss Sean Dyche has said on his counterpart today:
"Emery has delivered a fantastic job as a manager there. Their transfer business has been impressive - spent a lot of money, to be fair, on some very good players and they’ve moulded it into a cohesive team, so definitely a tough game.
We’ve just demonstrated lately, we’ve faced some of the bigger teams, or the ones that are tipped every year, and held our own 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 major fixtures."
Transfer Update
Harvey Elliott has no future at Aston Villa, news that was confirmed by the manager Unai Emery in the build-up to this match. The boss stated:
"I am respecting him all we can because he’s a very good professional, very dedicated. The situation 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 made the decision two months ago we are not persuaded to make the move permanent, committing the money we would need to."
Form Guide
How times change. This time last year Nottingham Forest were third in the table, where Villa are now. A lot of things have altered, including the manager twice and Sean Dyche is tasked with keeping the club in the top-flight this season. Since being named manager on 21 October, Dyche has won 10 Premier League points and the side are just outside the relegation zone with 19 games of the season remaining.
