Villa versus Forest: Top-Flight Match Preview
Preamble
Welcome everyone to this Premier League clash between Villa and Nottingham Forest. The home side are the strong favourites to win in this lunchtime start as they are excelling 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 following a defeat as Villa were defeated 4-1 by top-of-the-table Arsenal and Forest lost 2-0 to Everton.
It will be a challenging task for the visitors to secure 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 maybe it’s a new year and a new narrative? We will find out very soon.
The team news will be announced shortly before the start at 12.30pm GMT.
Team News
The team news is in. The Villa boss has made four changes to his starting lineup who were defeated by 4-1 to Arsenal last time around.
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 also 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.
Substitutes: Sels, Morato, Awoniyi, Luiz, Kalimuendo, McAtee, Zinchenko, Savona, Abbott.
Manager Comments
Nottingham Forest manager Sean Dyche has remarked on his opponent today:
"He’s [Unai Emery] done a fantastic job as a manager there. Their recruitment has been strong - invested a lot of money, to be fair, on some very good players and they’ve moulded it into a good unit, so definitely a challenging game.
We’ve just demonstrated lately, we’ve played against some of the larger clubs, or the ones that are fancied every year, and done very well against them - and a couple of teams maybe not as highly-rated, we haven't performed as strongly against them. That’s probably the challenge of the group - rising to the challenge of each game rather than just the big games."
Player Situation
The midfielder has will not be staying at Aston Villa, an update that was confirmed by the manager Unai Emery in the lead-up to this match. The boss commented:
"We respect him as much as possible because he’s a top professional, very dedicated. The issue we have with Harvey is this year he is a loan player and if he is featuring regularly, we must buy him. We decided two months ago we are not convinced to sign him, committing the money we need."
Form Guide
How times change. This time last year Nottingham Forest were third in the table, where 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 Premier League this season. Since being named manager on 21 October, Dyche has secured 10 Premier League points and the side are just outside the bottom three with 19 games of the season to go.