Villa versus Forest: Premier League Preview
Preamble
Welcome everyone to this English top-flight encounter between Aston Villa and Forest. Villa will be the favourites to win in this early kick-off as they are excelling this season and are currently occupying third place, while Forest are seventeenth and just four points outside of the drop zone.
The two teams are entering the game following a defeat as Villa were beaten 4-1 by league-leading Arsenal and Forest lost 2-0 to Everton.
This shapes up as a challenging task for the visitors to obtain all three points with Villa boasting 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 perhaps it’s new year, new story? All will become clear very soon.
The starting lineups will be announced shortly before the start at 12.30pm GMT.
Confirmed Lineups
The lineups have been confirmed. The Villa boss 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.
Substitutes: Bizot, Digne, Sancho, Garcia, Carroll, Bogarde, Hemmings, Malen, Jimoh-Aloba.
Nottingham Forest have likewise made four adjustments 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.
Manager Comments
Nottingham Forest manager Sean Dyche has remarked on his opponent today:
"He has done a excellent job as a manager there. Their signings has been impressive - invested a lot of money, to be fair, on some very good players and they’ve forged it into a good unit, so certainly a difficult game.
We’ve just demonstrated lately, we’ve taken on some of the larger clubs, or the ones that are fancied every year, and held our own against them - and a couple of teams perhaps not as fancied, we struggled more against them. That’s likely the test of the group - rising to the challenge of each game rather than just the big games."
Transfer Update
The midfielder has no future at Aston Villa, an update that was revealed by the manager Unai Emery in the lead-up to this match. The boss stated:
"I am respecting him all we can 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 must buy him. We decided two months ago we are not persuaded to sign him, committing the money we need."
Form Guide
What a difference a year makes. This time last year Nottingham 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 charged with keeping the club in the top-flight this season. Since being named manager on 21 October, Dyche has accumulated 10 Premier League points and the side are just above the relegation zone with 19 games of the season remaining.
