🔗 Share this article Aston Villa v Nottingham Forest: Top-Flight Match Preview Opening Thoughts Hello and welcome to this English top-flight encounter between Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest. The home side are the strong favourites to win in this early kick-off as they are soaring this season and are currently occupying third place, while Nottingham Forest are in 17th position and just a handful of points outside of the drop zone. Both clubs are entering the game on the back of a setback as Villa were overcome 4-1 by top-of-the-table Arsenal and Forest fell 2-0 to Everton. This shapes up as a challenging task for the visitors to obtain all three points with Villa having one of the best home forms in Europe at the moment and they also achieved a team record of 36 wins across all competitions this season. But perhaps it’s new year, new story? All will become clear very soon. The starting lineups will be released shortly before kick-off at 12.30pm GMT. Confirmed Lineups The team news is in. Unai Emery has made four changes to his starting XI who were defeated by 4-1 to Arsenal last time out. Aston 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 matchday 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 Nottingham Forest manager Sean Dyche has remarked on his opponent today: "He’s [Unai Emery] done a great job as a manager there. Their signings has been good - invested a lot of money, to be fair, on some excellent players and they’ve shaped it into a strong side, so definitely a tough game. We’ve just shown lately, we’ve faced 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 haven't performed as strongly against them. That’s likely the test of the group - rising to the expectation of each game rather than just the big games." Transfer Update Harvey Elliott has will not be staying at Aston Villa, news that was stated by the manager Unai Emery in the build-up to this match. The boss commented: "We respect him as much as possible because he’s a very good professional, very respectful. 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 decided two months ago we are not persuaded to make the move permanent, spending the money we would need to." League Context The tables have turned. This time last year Forest were third in the table, where Villa are now. A lot of things have changed, including the manager twice and Sean Dyche is charged with keeping the club in the Premier League this season. Since being named manager on 21 October, Dyche has won 10 Premier League points and the side are just above the relegation zone with 19 games of the season remaining.
Opening Thoughts Hello and welcome to this English top-flight encounter between Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest. The home side are the strong favourites to win in this early kick-off as they are soaring this season and are currently occupying third place, while Nottingham Forest are in 17th position and just a handful of points outside of the drop zone. Both clubs are entering the game on the back of a setback as Villa were overcome 4-1 by top-of-the-table Arsenal and Forest fell 2-0 to Everton. This shapes up as a challenging task for the visitors to obtain all three points with Villa having one of the best home forms in Europe at the moment and they also achieved a team record of 36 wins across all competitions this season. But perhaps it’s new year, new story? All will become clear very soon. The starting lineups will be released shortly before kick-off at 12.30pm GMT.
Confirmed Lineups The team news is in. Unai Emery has made four changes to his starting XI who were defeated by 4-1 to Arsenal last time out. Aston 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 matchday 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 Nottingham Forest manager Sean Dyche has remarked on his opponent today: "He’s [Unai Emery] done a great job as a manager there. Their signings has been good - invested a lot of money, to be fair, on some excellent players and they’ve shaped it into a strong side, so definitely a tough game. We’ve just shown lately, we’ve faced 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 haven't performed as strongly against them. That’s likely the test of the group - rising to the expectation of each game rather than just the big games."
Transfer Update Harvey Elliott has will not be staying at Aston Villa, news that was stated by the manager Unai Emery in the build-up to this match. The boss commented: "We respect him as much as possible because he’s a very good professional, very respectful. 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 decided two months ago we are not persuaded to make the move permanent, spending the money we would need to."
League Context The tables have turned. This time last year Forest were third in the table, where Villa are now. A lot of things have changed, including the manager twice and Sean Dyche is charged with keeping the club in the Premier League this season. Since being named manager on 21 October, Dyche has won 10 Premier League points and the side are just above the relegation zone with 19 games of the season remaining.