🔗 Share this article Aston Villa versus Nottingham Forest: Premier League Preview Opening Thoughts Greetings and welcome to this Premier League encounter between Villa and Forest. The home side are the favourites to win in this lunchtime start as they are excelling this season and are currently occupying third place, while Nottingham Forest are seventeenth and just four points outside of the relegation zone. Each side are entering the game off of the back of a setback as Villa were beaten 4-1 by top-of-the-table Arsenal and Forest fell 2-0 to Everton. It will be a difficult task for the visitors to obtain all three points with Villa having one of the best home records in Europe at the moment and they also recorded a club record of 36 wins across all competitions this season. But perhaps it’s a new year and a new narrative? We will find out very soon. The starting lineups will drop shortly before kick-off at 12.30pm GMT. Team News The lineups have been confirmed. Unai Emery has made a quartet of alterations to his starting XI 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 matchday squad after a 2-0 loss to Everton. Nott’m Forest: Victor, Williams, Murillo, Anderson, Gibbs-White, Dominguez, I Jesus, Hutchinson, Bakwa, Milenkovic, Aina. Bench: Sels, Morato, Awoniyi, Luiz, Kalimuendo, McAtee, Zinchenko, Savona, Abbott. Dugout Insights Forest boss Sean Dyche has said on his opponent today: "He’s [Unai Emery] done a excellent job as a manager there. Their signings has been impressive - spent a lot of money, to be fair, on some excellent players and they’ve shaped it into a good unit, so definitely a challenging game. We’ve just demonstrated lately, we’ve faced some of the bigger teams, or the ones that are tipped every year, and performed admirably against them - and a couple of teams maybe not as highly-rated, we haven't performed as strongly against them. That’s likely the test of the group - rising to the challenge of each game rather than just the big games." Player Situation Harvey Elliott has will not be staying at Aston Villa, an update that was revealed by the manager Unai Emery in the lead-up to this match. The boss commented: "I am respecting him all we can 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 made the decision two months ago we are not convinced to make the move permanent, committing the money we need." League Context The tables have turned. This time last year Nottingham Forest were in third place in the table, where Aston Villa are now. A lot of things have shifted, including the manager on two occasions and Sean Dyche 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 above the relegation zone with 19 games of the season remaining.
Opening Thoughts Greetings and welcome to this Premier League encounter between Villa and Forest. The home side are the favourites to win in this lunchtime start as they are excelling this season and are currently occupying third place, while Nottingham Forest are seventeenth and just four points outside of the relegation zone. Each side are entering the game off of the back of a setback as Villa were beaten 4-1 by top-of-the-table Arsenal and Forest fell 2-0 to Everton. It will be a difficult task for the visitors to obtain all three points with Villa having one of the best home records in Europe at the moment and they also recorded a club record of 36 wins across all competitions this season. But perhaps it’s a new year and a new narrative? We will find out very soon. The starting lineups will drop shortly before kick-off at 12.30pm GMT.
Team News The lineups have been confirmed. Unai Emery has made a quartet of alterations to his starting XI 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 matchday squad after a 2-0 loss to Everton. Nott’m Forest: Victor, Williams, Murillo, Anderson, Gibbs-White, Dominguez, I Jesus, Hutchinson, Bakwa, Milenkovic, Aina. Bench: Sels, Morato, Awoniyi, Luiz, Kalimuendo, McAtee, Zinchenko, Savona, Abbott.
Dugout Insights Forest boss Sean Dyche has said on his opponent today: "He’s [Unai Emery] done a excellent job as a manager there. Their signings has been impressive - spent a lot of money, to be fair, on some excellent players and they’ve shaped it into a good unit, so definitely a challenging game. We’ve just demonstrated lately, we’ve faced some of the bigger teams, or the ones that are tipped every year, and performed admirably against them - and a couple of teams maybe not as highly-rated, we haven't performed as strongly against them. That’s likely the test of the group - rising to the challenge of each game rather than just the big games."
Player Situation Harvey Elliott has will not be staying at Aston Villa, an update that was revealed by the manager Unai Emery in the lead-up to this match. The boss commented: "I am respecting him all we can 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 made the decision two months ago we are not convinced to make the move permanent, committing the money we need."
League Context The tables have turned. This time last year Nottingham Forest were in third place in the table, where Aston Villa are now. A lot of things have shifted, including the manager on two occasions and Sean Dyche 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 above the relegation zone with 19 games of the season remaining.