🔗 Share this article Aston Villa v Nottingham Forest: Premier League Preview Preamble Hello and welcome to this English top-flight encounter between Villa and Forest. The home side are the strong favourites to win in this early kick-off as they are excelling this season and are currently in third, while Forest are 17th and just four points outside of the relegation 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 Forest to secure all three points with Villa boasting 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? We will find out very soon. The confirmed XIs will be announced shortly before kick-off at 12.30pm GMT. Starting Elevens The starting XIs have been announced. Unai Emery has made a quartet of alterations to his starting lineup who were defeated by 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. 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. Substitutes: Sels, Morato, Awoniyi, Luiz, Kalimuendo, McAtee, Zinchenko, Savona, Abbott. Manager Comments Nottingham Forest manager Sean Dyche has commented on his counterpart today: "Emery has delivered a fantastic job as a manager there. Their signings has been good - spent a lot of money, to be fair, on some very good players and they’ve shaped it into a cohesive team, so definitely a difficult game. We’ve just demonstrated lately, we’ve played against some of the bigger teams, or the ones that are fancied every year, and performed admirably against them - and a couple of teams maybe not as fancied, we struggled more against them. That’s likely the challenge of the group - meeting the challenge of each game rather than just the big games." Transfer Update The midfielder has will not be staying at Aston Villa, news that was confirmed by the manager Unai Emery in the lead-up to this match. The boss stated: "I am respecting 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 are obligated to buy him. We made the decision two months ago we are not convinced to make the move permanent, committing the money we would need to." Season Snapshot 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 altered, 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 secured 10 Premier League points and the side are just above the bottom three with 19 games of the season remaining.
Preamble Hello and welcome to this English top-flight encounter between Villa and Forest. The home side are the strong favourites to win in this early kick-off as they are excelling this season and are currently in third, while Forest are 17th and just four points outside of the relegation 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 Forest to secure all three points with Villa boasting 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? We will find out very soon. The confirmed XIs will be announced shortly before kick-off at 12.30pm GMT.
Starting Elevens The starting XIs have been announced. Unai Emery has made a quartet of alterations to his starting lineup who were defeated by 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. 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. Substitutes: Sels, Morato, Awoniyi, Luiz, Kalimuendo, McAtee, Zinchenko, Savona, Abbott.
Manager Comments Nottingham Forest manager Sean Dyche has commented on his counterpart today: "Emery has delivered a fantastic job as a manager there. Their signings has been good - spent a lot of money, to be fair, on some very good players and they’ve shaped it into a cohesive team, so definitely a difficult game. We’ve just demonstrated lately, we’ve played against some of the bigger teams, or the ones that are fancied every year, and performed admirably against them - and a couple of teams maybe not as fancied, we struggled more against them. That’s likely the challenge of the group - meeting the challenge of each game rather than just the big games."
Transfer Update The midfielder has will not be staying at Aston Villa, news that was confirmed by the manager Unai Emery in the lead-up to this match. The boss stated: "I am respecting 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 are obligated to buy him. We made the decision two months ago we are not convinced to make the move permanent, committing the money we would need to."
Season Snapshot 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 altered, 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 secured 10 Premier League points and the side are just above the bottom three with 19 games of the season remaining.