🔗 Share this article Villa v Forest: Premier League Match Preview Preamble Hello and welcome to this English top-flight fixture between Aston Villa and Forest. Aston Villa are the strong favourites to win in this lunchtime start as they are flying this season and are currently sitting third, while Forest are seventeenth and just four points outside of the relegation zone. Each side are entering the game off of the back of a loss as Villa were defeated 4-1 by top-of-the-table Arsenal and Forest fell 2-0 to Everton. This shapes up as a tough task for Forest to come away with all three points with Villa having one of the best home forms in Europe at the moment and they also set a club record of 36 wins across all competitions this season. But maybe it’s new year, new story? All will become clear very soon. The team news will drop shortly before kick-off at 12.30pm GMT. Starting Elevens The team news is in. Unai Emery has made four changes to his starting XI 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. Nottingham Forest have also made four changes 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 great job as a manager there. Their transfer business has been good - invested a lot of money, to be fair, on some excellent players and they’ve moulded it into a strong side, so certainly a tough game. We’ve just shown lately, we’ve played against some of the bigger teams, or the ones that are tipped every year, and held our own against them - and a couple of teams perhaps not as highly-rated, 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." Player Situation The midfielder has will not be staying at Aston Villa, an update that was confirmed by the manager Unai Emery in the build-up to this match. The boss stated: "I am respecting him as much as possible because he’s a top professional, very respectful. The situation we have with Harvey is this year he is a loan player and if he is featuring regularly, we are obligated to buy him. We made the decision two months ago we are not convinced to sign him, spending the money we would need to." League Context What a difference a year makes. This time last year Forest were in third place in the table, where Aston Villa are now. A lot of things have shifted, including the manager twice and the current boss is charged with keeping the club in the Premier League this season. Since being named manager on 21 October, Dyche has accumulated 10 Premier League points and the side are just above the bottom three with 19 games of the season to go.
Preamble Hello and welcome to this English top-flight fixture between Aston Villa and Forest. Aston Villa are the strong favourites to win in this lunchtime start as they are flying this season and are currently sitting third, while Forest are seventeenth and just four points outside of the relegation zone. Each side are entering the game off of the back of a loss as Villa were defeated 4-1 by top-of-the-table Arsenal and Forest fell 2-0 to Everton. This shapes up as a tough task for Forest to come away with all three points with Villa having one of the best home forms in Europe at the moment and they also set a club record of 36 wins across all competitions this season. But maybe it’s new year, new story? All will become clear very soon. The team news will drop shortly before kick-off at 12.30pm GMT.
Starting Elevens The team news is in. Unai Emery has made four changes to his starting XI 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. Nottingham Forest have also made four changes 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 great job as a manager there. Their transfer business has been good - invested a lot of money, to be fair, on some excellent players and they’ve moulded it into a strong side, so certainly a tough game. We’ve just shown lately, we’ve played against some of the bigger teams, or the ones that are tipped every year, and held our own against them - and a couple of teams perhaps not as highly-rated, 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."
Player Situation The midfielder has will not be staying at Aston Villa, an update that was confirmed by the manager Unai Emery in the build-up to this match. The boss stated: "I am respecting him as much as possible because he’s a top professional, very respectful. The situation we have with Harvey is this year he is a loan player and if he is featuring regularly, we are obligated to buy him. We made the decision two months ago we are not convinced to sign him, spending the money we would need to."
League Context What a difference a year makes. This time last year Forest were in third place in the table, where Aston Villa are now. A lot of things have shifted, including the manager twice and the current boss is charged with keeping the club in the Premier League this season. Since being named manager on 21 October, Dyche has accumulated 10 Premier League points and the side are just above the bottom three with 19 games of the season to go.