Aston Villa against Forest: Top-Flight Match Preview
Opening Thoughts
Hello and welcome to this Premier League clash between Aston Villa and Forest. Villa will be the favourites to win in this lunchtime start as they are excelling this season and are currently occupying third place, while Nottingham Forest are 17th and just four points outside of the drop zone.
The two teams are coming into the game on the back of a defeat as Villa were beaten 4-1 by top-of-the-table Arsenal and Forest fell 2-0 to Everton.
It will be a difficult task for Sean Dyche’s side to secure all three points with Villa having one of the best home records in Europe at the moment and they also recorded a team record of 36 wins across all competitions this season. But perhaps it’s a new year and a new narrative? All will become clear very soon.
The confirmed XIs will drop shortly before kick-off at 12.30pm GMT.
Team News
The starting XIs have been announced. Unai Emery has made four changes to his first eleven who were defeated by 4-1 to Arsenal last time around.
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 starting squad after a 2-0 loss 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.
Pre-Match Quotes
Forest boss Sean Dyche has remarked on his counterpart today:
"Emery has delivered a excellent job as a manager there. Their signings has been good - spent a lot of money, to be fair, on some excellent players and they’ve shaped it into a cohesive team, so certainly a difficult game.
We’ve just shown lately, we’ve faced some of the bigger teams, or the ones that are favoured every year, and held our own against them - and a couple of teams maybe not as fancied, we haven't performed as strongly against them. That’s likely the challenge of the group - meeting the challenge of each game rather than just the big games."
Squad News
The midfielder has no future at Aston Villa, an update that was stated by the manager Emery in the build-up to this match. The boss stated:
"We respect him all we can because he’s a excellent professional, very dedicated. 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 made the decision two months ago we are not convinced to make the move permanent, spending the money we would need to."
Season Snapshot
What a difference a year makes. This time last year Forest were third in the table, where Villa are now. A lot of things have shifted, including the manager twice and the current boss is charged with keeping the club in the Premier League this season. Since being appointed on 21 October, Dyche has accumulated 10 Premier League points and the side are just outside the bottom three with 19 games of the season to go.
