Aston Villa v Forest: Premier League Preview
Preamble
Greetings and welcome to this Premier League fixture between Villa and Nottingham Forest. Aston Villa are the strong favourites to win in this lunchtime start as they are soaring this season and are currently occupying third place, while Nottingham Forest are 17th and just a handful of points outside of the drop zone.
Both clubs are coming into the game following a defeat as Villa were beaten 4-1 by league-leading Arsenal and Forest succumbed 2-0 to Everton.
This promises to be a difficult task for the visitors to come away with all three points with Villa possessing one of the best home forms in Europe at the moment and they also set a team record of 36 wins across all competitions this season. But maybe it’s new year, new story? The answer will be revealed very soon.
The confirmed XIs will be announced shortly before the start at 12.30pm GMT.
Confirmed Lineups
The team news is in. Unai Emery has made four changes to his starting lineup who lost 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.
Nottingham Forest have likewise made four changes to their starting 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.
Pre-Match Quotes
Nottingham Forest manager Sean Dyche has remarked on his counterpart today:
"He has done a great job as a manager there. Their signings has been strong - spent a lot of money, to be fair, on some very good players and they’ve forged it into a strong side, so definitely a difficult game.
We’ve just shown lately, we’ve faced 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 highly-rated, we haven’t done as well against them. That’s likely the test of the group - rising to the challenge of each game rather than just the major fixtures."
Player Situation
The midfielder has no future at Aston Villa, news that was confirmed by the manager Unai Emery in the build-up to this match. The boss commented:
"We respect him all we can because he’s a very good professional, very dedicated. The problem we have with Harvey is this year he is on loan and if he is playing matches, we must buy him. We made the decision two months ago we are not persuaded to sign him, spending the money we need."
League Context
The tables have turned. This time last year 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 tasked with keeping the club in the top-flight this season. Since being appointed on 21 October, Dyche has won 10 Premier League points and the side are just outside the bottom three with 19 games of the season to go.
