Aston Villa v Nottingham Forest: Top-Flight Build-Up
Introduction
Hello and welcome to this Premier League fixture between Villa and Nottingham Forest. Aston Villa are the favourites to win in this lunchtime start as they are flying this season and are currently occupying third place, while Nottingham Forest are seventeenth and just a handful of points outside of the drop zone.
The two teams are entering the game on the back of a defeat as Villa were defeated 4-1 by top-of-the-table Arsenal and Forest succumbed 2-0 to Everton.
This shapes up as a challenging 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 achieved a team record of 36 wins across all competitions this season. But perhaps it’s new year, new story? All will become clear very soon.
The team news will be announced shortly before the start at 12.30pm GMT.
Confirmed Lineups
The team news is in. The Villa boss has made four changes to his first eleven who lost 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.
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.
Dugout Insights
Forest boss Sean Dyche has said on his counterpart today:
"He has done a great job as a manager there. Their recruitment has been strong - invested a lot of money, to be fair, on some top players and they’ve moulded it into a strong side, so definitely a tough game.
We’ve just shown lately, we’ve played against some of the top sides, or the ones that are fancied every year, and done very well against them - and a couple of teams perhaps not as fancied, we struggled more against them. That’s likely the test of the group - meeting the expectation 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 commented:
"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 must buy him. We made the decision two months ago we are not persuaded to sign him, spending the money we would need to."
Form Guide
What a difference a year makes. This time last year Nottingham Forest were third in the table, where Aston Villa are now. A lot of things have altered, including the manager twice and the current boss is charged with keeping the club in the top-flight this season. Since being named manager on 21 October, Dyche has won 10 Premier League points and the side are just outside the relegation zone with 19 games of the season to go.
