Villa against Forest: Top-Flight Preview
Introduction
Hello and welcome to this Premier League fixture between Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest. Aston Villa are the favourites to win in this early kick-off as they are flying this season and are currently occupying third place, while Forest are in 17th position and just a handful of points outside of the relegation zone.
Both clubs are coming into the game off of the back of a setback as Villa were overcome 4-1 by top-of-the-table Arsenal and Forest fell 2-0 to Everton.
This shapes up as a tough task for Sean Dyche’s side to secure all three points with Villa possessing one of the best home forms in Europe at the moment and they also achieved a team record of 36 wins across all competitions this season. But maybe it’s a new year and a new narrative? All will become clear very soon.
The confirmed XIs will be announced shortly before the start at 12.30pm GMT.
Team News
The starting XIs have been announced. The Villa boss has made a quartet of alterations to his first eleven who lost 4-1 to Arsenal last time out.
Aston Villa: Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Lindelof, Maatsen, Kamara, Tielemans, McGinn, Buendia, Rogers, Watkins.
Bench: Bizot, Digne, Sancho, Garcia, Carroll, Bogarde, Hemmings, Malen, Jimoh-Aloba.
Forest have also 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.
Bench: Sels, Morato, Awoniyi, Luiz, Kalimuendo, McAtee, Zinchenko, Savona, Abbott.
Manager Comments
Forest boss Sean Dyche has said on his opponent today:
"Emery has delivered a excellent job as a manager there. Their recruitment has been strong - invested a lot of money, to be fair, on some excellent players and they’ve moulded it into a good unit, so certainly a tough game.
We’ve just shown lately, we’ve faced some of the larger clubs, or the ones that are favoured 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 - meeting the expectation of each game rather than just the major fixtures."
Player Situation
The midfielder has no future at Aston Villa, an update that was revealed by the manager Emery in the build-up to this match. The boss said:
"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 on loan and if he is playing matches, we are obligated to buy him. We decided two months ago we are not convinced to make the move permanent, spending the money we would need to."
Season Snapshot
What a difference a year makes. This time last year Nottingham Forest were in third place in the table, where Villa are now. A lot of things have altered, including the manager on two occasions and the current boss is charged with keeping the club in the Premier League this season. Since being appointed 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.
