Villa v Nottingham Forest: Top-Flight Build-Up
Opening Thoughts
Hello and welcome to this English top-flight clash between Aston Villa and Forest. Aston Villa are the expected winners to win in this early kick-off as they are soaring this season and are currently in third, while Nottingham Forest are in 17th position and just a handful of points outside of the drop zone.
The two teams are coming into the game following a loss as Villa were beaten 4-1 by league-leading Arsenal and Forest fell 2-0 to Everton.
This shapes up as a challenging task for the visitors to come away with all three points with Villa possessing one of the best home records in Europe at the moment and they also achieved a club record of 36 wins across all competitions this season. But maybe it’s new year, new story? We will find out very soon.
The confirmed XIs will drop shortly before kick-off at 12.30pm GMT.
Starting Elevens
The team news is in. The Villa boss has made four changes to his first eleven 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.
Forest have also made four adjustments to their starting squad after a 2-0 loss to Everton.
Nottingham Forest: Victor, Williams, Murillo, Anderson, Gibbs-White, Dominguez, I Jesus, Hutchinson, Bakwa, Milenkovic, Aina.
Substitutes: Sels, Morato, Awoniyi, Luiz, Kalimuendo, McAtee, Zinchenko, Savona, Abbott.
Manager Comments
Nottingham Forest manager Sean Dyche has commented on his opponent today:
"He has done a excellent job as a manager there. Their recruitment has been good - invested a lot of money, to be fair, on some excellent players and they’ve forged it into a cohesive team, so definitely a tough game.
We’ve just shown lately, we’ve played against some of the top sides, or the ones that are favoured every year, and done very well against them - and a couple of teams maybe not as fancied, we haven’t done as well against them. That’s probably the test of the group - rising to the challenge of each game rather than just the big games."
Squad News
The midfielder has will not be staying at Aston Villa, an update that was revealed by the manager Emery in the build-up to this match. The boss said:
"We respect him as much as possible because he’s a very good professional, very respectful. The problem we have with Harvey is this year he is on loan and if he is featuring regularly, we are obligated to buy him. We made the decision two months ago we are not convinced to make the move permanent, spending the money we need."
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 changed, including the manager on two occasions and Sean Dyche is tasked with keeping the club in the Premier League this season. Since being appointed 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.
