🔗 Share this article Aston Villa v Nottingham Forest: Top-Flight Match Preview Opening Thoughts Hello and welcome to this Premier League fixture between Villa and Forest. The home side are the expected winners to win in this early kick-off as they are excelling this season and are currently occupying third place, while Forest are 17th and just four points outside of the relegation zone. Both clubs are coming into the game following a loss as Villa were beaten 4-1 by top-of-the-table Arsenal and Forest lost 2-0 to Everton. This promises to be a challenging task for Sean Dyche’s side to obtain all three points with Villa having one of the best home forms 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 be announced shortly before kick-off at 12.30pm GMT. Starting Elevens The lineups have been confirmed. Unai Emery has made four changes to his starting XI who lost 4-1 to Arsenal in their previous match. Villa: Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Lindelof, Maatsen, Kamara, Tielemans, McGinn, Buendia, Rogers, Watkins. Bench: Bizot, Digne, Sancho, Garcia, Carroll, Bogarde, Hemmings, Malen, Jimoh-Aloba. Nottingham Forest have also made four changes 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. Dugout Insights Forest boss Sean Dyche has remarked on his opponent today: "Emery has delivered a great job as a manager there. Their signings has been impressive - invested a lot of money, to be fair, on some top players and they’ve shaped it into a cohesive team, so certainly a challenging game. We’ve just shown lately, we’ve taken on 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 performed as strongly against them. That’s likely the test of the group - rising to the expectation of each game rather than just the major fixtures." Transfer Update The midfielder has no future at Aston Villa, an update that was revealed by the manager Emery in the lead-up to this match. The boss stated: "I am respecting him all we can because he’s a top professional, very respectful. The problem we have with Harvey is this year he is on loan 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 would need to." Season Snapshot 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 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 outside the bottom three with 19 games of the season remaining.
Opening Thoughts Hello and welcome to this Premier League fixture between Villa and Forest. The home side are the expected winners to win in this early kick-off as they are excelling this season and are currently occupying third place, while Forest are 17th and just four points outside of the relegation zone. Both clubs are coming into the game following a loss as Villa were beaten 4-1 by top-of-the-table Arsenal and Forest lost 2-0 to Everton. This promises to be a challenging task for Sean Dyche’s side to obtain all three points with Villa having one of the best home forms 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 be announced shortly before kick-off at 12.30pm GMT.
Starting Elevens The lineups have been confirmed. Unai Emery has made four changes to his starting XI who lost 4-1 to Arsenal in their previous match. Villa: Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Lindelof, Maatsen, Kamara, Tielemans, McGinn, Buendia, Rogers, Watkins. Bench: Bizot, Digne, Sancho, Garcia, Carroll, Bogarde, Hemmings, Malen, Jimoh-Aloba. Nottingham Forest have also made four changes 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.
Dugout Insights Forest boss Sean Dyche has remarked on his opponent today: "Emery has delivered a great job as a manager there. Their signings has been impressive - invested a lot of money, to be fair, on some top players and they’ve shaped it into a cohesive team, so certainly a challenging game. We’ve just shown lately, we’ve taken on 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 performed as strongly against them. That’s likely the test of the group - rising to the expectation of each game rather than just the major fixtures."
Transfer Update The midfielder has no future at Aston Villa, an update that was revealed by the manager Emery in the lead-up to this match. The boss stated: "I am respecting him all we can because he’s a top professional, very respectful. The problem we have with Harvey is this year he is on loan 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 would need to."
Season Snapshot 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 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 outside the bottom three with 19 games of the season remaining.