🔗 Share this article Aston Villa versus Forest: Top-Flight Preview Opening Thoughts Welcome everyone to this English top-flight clash between Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest. Aston Villa are the favourites to win in this early kick-off as they are flying this season and are currently sitting third, while Forest are seventeenth and just a handful of points outside of the drop zone. Each side are entering the game following a loss as Villa were defeated 4-1 by league-leading Arsenal and Forest lost 2-0 to Everton. This promises to be a tough task for Sean Dyche’s side to secure all three points with Villa boasting one of the best home records 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 team news will be announced shortly before kick-off at 12.30pm GMT. Team News The lineups have been confirmed. Unai Emery has made a quartet of alterations to his starting XI 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. Bench: Bizot, Digne, Sancho, Garcia, Carroll, Bogarde, Hemmings, Malen, Jimoh-Aloba. Nottingham Forest have likewise made four adjustments to their matchday squad after a 2-0 defeat 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 Nottingham Forest manager Sean Dyche has remarked on his opponent today: "He’s [Unai Emery] done a excellent job as a manager there. Their recruitment has been impressive - spent a lot of money, to be fair, on some excellent players and they’ve shaped it into a good unit, so certainly a challenging game. We’ve just shown lately, we’ve taken on some of the larger clubs, or the ones that are fancied every year, and done very well against them - and a couple of teams perhaps not as fancied, we struggled more against them. That’s likely the test of the group - meeting the challenge of each game rather than just the big games." Squad News Harvey Elliott has will not be staying at Aston Villa, an update that was revealed 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 excellent professional, very respectful. The situation we have with Harvey is this year he is on loan and if he is playing matches, we must buy him. We decided two months ago we are not convinced to sign him, committing the money we would need to." Form Guide How times change. This time last year Forest were third in the table, where Villa are now. A lot of things have altered, including the manager on two occasions 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 relegation zone with 19 games of the season to go.
Opening Thoughts Welcome everyone to this English top-flight clash between Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest. Aston Villa are the favourites to win in this early kick-off as they are flying this season and are currently sitting third, while Forest are seventeenth and just a handful of points outside of the drop zone. Each side are entering the game following a loss as Villa were defeated 4-1 by league-leading Arsenal and Forest lost 2-0 to Everton. This promises to be a tough task for Sean Dyche’s side to secure all three points with Villa boasting one of the best home records 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 team news will be announced shortly before kick-off at 12.30pm GMT.
Team News The lineups have been confirmed. Unai Emery has made a quartet of alterations to his starting XI 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. Bench: Bizot, Digne, Sancho, Garcia, Carroll, Bogarde, Hemmings, Malen, Jimoh-Aloba. Nottingham Forest have likewise made four adjustments to their matchday squad after a 2-0 defeat 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 Nottingham Forest manager Sean Dyche has remarked on his opponent today: "He’s [Unai Emery] done a excellent job as a manager there. Their recruitment has been impressive - spent a lot of money, to be fair, on some excellent players and they’ve shaped it into a good unit, so certainly a challenging game. We’ve just shown lately, we’ve taken on some of the larger clubs, or the ones that are fancied every year, and done very well against them - and a couple of teams perhaps not as fancied, we struggled more against them. That’s likely the test of the group - meeting the challenge of each game rather than just the big games."
Squad News Harvey Elliott has will not be staying at Aston Villa, an update that was revealed 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 excellent professional, very respectful. The situation we have with Harvey is this year he is on loan and if he is playing matches, we must buy him. We decided two months ago we are not convinced to sign him, committing the money we would need to."
Form Guide How times change. This time last year Forest were third in the table, where Villa are now. A lot of things have altered, including the manager on two occasions 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 relegation zone with 19 games of the season to go.