🔗 Share this article Villa versus Forest: Top-Flight Preview Opening Thoughts Welcome everyone to this Premier League fixture between Villa and Forest. Villa will be the favourites to win in this early kick-off as they are excelling this season and are currently sitting third, while Forest are 17th and just four points outside of the drop zone. Both clubs are entering the game on the back of a loss as Villa were defeated 4-1 by top-of-the-table Arsenal and Forest fell 2-0 to Everton. It will be a tough 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 set a club record of 36 wins across all competitions this season. But maybe it’s new year, new story? The answer will be revealed very soon. The confirmed XIs will be announced shortly before kick-off at 12.30pm GMT. Team News The lineups have been confirmed. Unai Emery has made four changes to his starting XI who lost 4-1 to Arsenal last time out. 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 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. Pre-Match Quotes Forest boss Sean Dyche has remarked on his counterpart today: "He has done a fantastic job as a manager there. Their recruitment has been impressive - spent a lot of money, to be fair, on some top players and they’ve forged it into a cohesive team, so certainly a difficult game. We’ve just shown lately, we’ve played against some of the top sides, or the ones that are fancied every year, and held our own against them - and a couple of teams maybe not as fancied, we haven’t done as well against them. That’s likely the test of the group - rising to the challenge of each game rather than just the big games." Squad News Harvey Elliott 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: "We respect him all we can because he’s a top professional, very respectful. 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 make the move permanent, committing the money we need." League Context How times change. This time last year Forest were third in the table, where Villa are now. A lot of things have changed, 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 won 10 Premier League points and the side are just outside the bottom three with 19 games of the season to go.
Opening Thoughts Welcome everyone to this Premier League fixture between Villa and Forest. Villa will be the favourites to win in this early kick-off as they are excelling this season and are currently sitting third, while Forest are 17th and just four points outside of the drop zone. Both clubs are entering the game on the back of a loss as Villa were defeated 4-1 by top-of-the-table Arsenal and Forest fell 2-0 to Everton. It will be a tough 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 set a club record of 36 wins across all competitions this season. But maybe it’s new year, new story? The answer will be revealed very soon. The confirmed XIs will be announced shortly before kick-off at 12.30pm GMT.
Team News The lineups have been confirmed. Unai Emery has made four changes to his starting XI who lost 4-1 to Arsenal last time out. 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 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.
Pre-Match Quotes Forest boss Sean Dyche has remarked on his counterpart today: "He has done a fantastic job as a manager there. Their recruitment has been impressive - spent a lot of money, to be fair, on some top players and they’ve forged it into a cohesive team, so certainly a difficult game. We’ve just shown lately, we’ve played against some of the top sides, or the ones that are fancied every year, and held our own against them - and a couple of teams maybe not as fancied, we haven’t done as well against them. That’s likely the test of the group - rising to the challenge of each game rather than just the big games."
Squad News Harvey Elliott 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: "We respect him all we can because he’s a top professional, very respectful. 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 make the move permanent, committing the money we need."
League Context How times change. This time last year Forest were third in the table, where Villa are now. A lot of things have changed, 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 won 10 Premier League points and the side are just outside the bottom three with 19 games of the season to go.