🔗 Share this article Villa v Nottingham Forest: Top-Flight Preview Opening Thoughts Hello and welcome to this English top-flight clash between Villa and Nottingham Forest. Aston Villa are the favourites to win in this early kick-off as they are excelling this season and are currently sitting third, while Nottingham 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 loss as Villa were overcome 4-1 by top-of-the-table Arsenal and Forest fell 2-0 to Everton. This promises to be a challenging task for Forest to obtain all three points with Villa having one of the best home records in Europe at the moment and they also set a club 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 starting lineups will drop shortly before kick-off at 12.30pm GMT. Team News The team news is in. The Villa boss has made four changes to his starting XI who were defeated by 4-1 to Arsenal last time around. 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 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. Pre-Match Quotes Nottingham Forest manager Sean Dyche has said on his counterpart today: "Emery has delivered a great job as a manager there. Their recruitment has been impressive - invested a lot of money, to be fair, on some excellent players and they’ve shaped it into a good unit, so definitely a challenging 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 fancied, we haven't performed as strongly against them. That’s probably the test of the group - rising to the challenge of each game rather than just the major fixtures." Squad News The midfielder has will not be staying at Aston Villa, an update that was stated by the manager Unai Emery in the lead-up to this match. The boss said: "We respect him as much as possible because he’s a top professional, very respectful. The problem we have with Harvey is this year he is a loan player and if he is playing matches, we must buy him. We made the decision two months ago we are not persuaded to make the move permanent, committing the money we need." League Context The tables have turned. This time last year Forest were in third place in the table, where Aston Villa are now. A lot of things have altered, including the manager twice and Sean Dyche is charged with keeping the club in the Premier League this season. Since being appointed on 21 October, Dyche has won 10 Premier League points and the side are just above the bottom three with 19 games of the season remaining.
Opening Thoughts Hello and welcome to this English top-flight clash between Villa and Nottingham Forest. Aston Villa are the favourites to win in this early kick-off as they are excelling this season and are currently sitting third, while Nottingham 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 loss as Villa were overcome 4-1 by top-of-the-table Arsenal and Forest fell 2-0 to Everton. This promises to be a challenging task for Forest to obtain all three points with Villa having one of the best home records in Europe at the moment and they also set a club 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 starting lineups will drop shortly before kick-off at 12.30pm GMT.
Team News The team news is in. The Villa boss has made four changes to his starting XI who were defeated by 4-1 to Arsenal last time around. 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 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.
Pre-Match Quotes Nottingham Forest manager Sean Dyche has said on his counterpart today: "Emery has delivered a great job as a manager there. Their recruitment has been impressive - invested a lot of money, to be fair, on some excellent players and they’ve shaped it into a good unit, so definitely a challenging 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 fancied, we haven't performed as strongly against them. That’s probably the test of the group - rising to the challenge of each game rather than just the major fixtures."
Squad News The midfielder has will not be staying at Aston Villa, an update that was stated by the manager Unai Emery in the lead-up to this match. The boss said: "We respect him as much as possible because he’s a top professional, very respectful. The problem we have with Harvey is this year he is a loan player and if he is playing matches, we must buy him. We made the decision two months ago we are not persuaded to make the move permanent, committing the money we need."
League Context The tables have turned. This time last year Forest were in third place in the table, where Aston Villa are now. A lot of things have altered, including the manager twice and Sean Dyche is charged with keeping the club in the Premier League this season. Since being appointed on 21 October, Dyche has won 10 Premier League points and the side are just above the bottom three with 19 games of the season remaining.