🔗 Share this article Villa against Forest: Top-Flight Build-Up Introduction Greetings and welcome to this Premier League encounter between Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest. Aston Villa are the strong favourites to win in this early kick-off as they are soaring this season and are currently occupying third place, while Nottingham Forest are 17th and just a handful of points outside of the relegation zone. Each side are coming into the game on the back of a loss as Villa were beaten 4-1 by top-of-the-table Arsenal and Forest succumbed 2-0 to Everton. It will be a difficult task for the visitors to come away with all three points with Villa having one of the best home forms in Europe at the moment and they also achieved 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 released shortly before the start at 12.30pm GMT. Confirmed Lineups The lineups have been confirmed. The Villa boss has made a quartet of alterations 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. Bench: Bizot, Digne, Sancho, Garcia, Carroll, Bogarde, Hemmings, Malen, Jimoh-Aloba. Forest have also made four adjustments to their starting 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 remarked on his counterpart today: "Emery has delivered a great job as a manager there. Their transfer business has been impressive - invested a lot of money, to be fair, on some very good players and they’ve moulded it into a cohesive team, so definitely a tough game. We’ve just shown lately, we’ve played against some of the bigger teams, or the ones that are tipped every year, and performed admirably against them - and a couple of teams perhaps not as highly-rated, we haven't performed as strongly against them. That’s likely the test of the group - rising to the challenge of each game rather than just the major fixtures." Squad News Harvey Elliott has will not be staying at Aston Villa, news that was revealed by the manager Emery in the build-up to this match. The boss stated: "I am respecting him all we can 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 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 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 Sean Dyche is tasked with keeping the club in the Premier League this season. Since being appointed on 21 October, Dyche has won 10 Premier League points and the side are just above the bottom three with 19 games of the season to go.
Introduction Greetings and welcome to this Premier League encounter between Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest. Aston Villa are the strong favourites to win in this early kick-off as they are soaring this season and are currently occupying third place, while Nottingham Forest are 17th and just a handful of points outside of the relegation zone. Each side are coming into the game on the back of a loss as Villa were beaten 4-1 by top-of-the-table Arsenal and Forest succumbed 2-0 to Everton. It will be a difficult task for the visitors to come away with all three points with Villa having one of the best home forms in Europe at the moment and they also achieved 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 released shortly before the start at 12.30pm GMT.
Confirmed Lineups The lineups have been confirmed. The Villa boss has made a quartet of alterations 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. Bench: Bizot, Digne, Sancho, Garcia, Carroll, Bogarde, Hemmings, Malen, Jimoh-Aloba. Forest have also made four adjustments to their starting 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 remarked on his counterpart today: "Emery has delivered a great job as a manager there. Their transfer business has been impressive - invested a lot of money, to be fair, on some very good players and they’ve moulded it into a cohesive team, so definitely a tough game. We’ve just shown lately, we’ve played against some of the bigger teams, or the ones that are tipped every year, and performed admirably against them - and a couple of teams perhaps not as highly-rated, we haven't performed as strongly against them. That’s likely the test of the group - rising to the challenge of each game rather than just the major fixtures."
Squad News Harvey Elliott has will not be staying at Aston Villa, news that was revealed by the manager Emery in the build-up to this match. The boss stated: "I am respecting him all we can 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 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 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 Sean Dyche is tasked with keeping the club in the Premier League this season. Since being appointed on 21 October, Dyche has won 10 Premier League points and the side are just above the bottom three with 19 games of the season to go.