Aston Villa versus Forest: Top-Flight Build-Up
Opening Thoughts
Greetings and welcome to this English top-flight fixture between Villa and Forest. Villa will be the strong favourites to win in this lunchtime start as they are excelling this season and are currently occupying third place, while Forest are seventeenth and just a handful of points outside of the drop zone.
The two teams are entering the game off of the back of a setback as Villa were overcome 4-1 by league-leading Arsenal and Forest succumbed 2-0 to Everton.
It will be a difficult task for Sean Dyche’s side to secure all three points with Villa having one of the best home records in Europe at the moment and they also set a team record of 36 wins across all competitions this season. But maybe it’s a new year and a new narrative? The answer will be revealed very soon.
The team news will be released shortly before kick-off at 12.30pm GMT.
Team News
The lineups have been confirmed. Unai Emery has made four changes to his starting lineup who lost 4-1 to Arsenal in their previous match.
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
Forest boss Sean Dyche has said on his counterpart today:
"Emery has delivered a excellent job as a manager there. Their transfer business has been impressive - spent a lot of money, to be fair, on some excellent players and they’ve moulded it into a good unit, so definitely a tough game.
We’ve just demonstrated lately, we’ve faced some of the larger clubs, or the ones that are tipped every year, and done very well against them - and a couple of teams perhaps not as fancied, we haven't performed as strongly against them. That’s probably the test of the group - rising to the challenge of each game rather than just the big games."
Transfer Update
Harvey Elliott has will not be staying at Aston Villa, an update that was stated by the manager Emery in the build-up to this match. The boss stated:
"I am respecting him as much as possible because he’s a excellent professional, very dedicated. The situation we have with Harvey is this year he is on loan and if he is playing matches, we are obligated to buy him. We decided two months ago we are not persuaded to sign him, spending 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 on two occasions and Sean Dyche is charged with keeping the club in the top-flight this season. Since being appointed 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 to go.
