Villa versus Nottingham Forest: Top-Flight Build-Up
Introduction
Welcome everyone to this Premier League fixture between Aston Villa and 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 Forest are seventeenth and just a handful of points outside of the relegation zone.
Each side are coming into the game on the back of a setback as Villa were overcome 4-1 by league-leading 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 boasting one of the best home records in Europe at the moment and they also set a team 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 team news will be released shortly before the start at 12.30pm GMT.
Confirmed Lineups
The starting XIs have been announced. Unai Emery has made a quartet of alterations 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.
Substitutes: Bizot, Digne, Sancho, Garcia, Carroll, Bogarde, Hemmings, Malen, Jimoh-Aloba.
Forest have likewise made four changes 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.
Substitutes: Sels, Morato, Awoniyi, Luiz, Kalimuendo, McAtee, Zinchenko, Savona, Abbott.
Pre-Match Quotes
Forest boss Sean Dyche has remarked on his opponent today:
"He has done a fantastic job as a manager there. Their signings has been good - 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 demonstrated lately, we’ve played against some of the bigger teams, or the ones that are tipped every year, and held our own against them - and a couple of teams perhaps not as highly-rated, we haven’t done as well against them. That’s probably the challenge of the group - rising to the challenge of each game rather than just the big games."
Transfer Update
Harvey Elliott has no future at Aston Villa, an update that was stated by the manager Unai Emery in the build-up to this match. The boss stated:
"We respect him as much as possible because he’s a very good professional, very respectful. The situation we have with Harvey is this year he is on loan and if he is featuring regularly, we must buy him. We made the decision two months ago we are not persuaded to sign him, committing the money we would need to."
League Context
The tables have turned. This time last year Nottingham Forest were in third place in the table, where Villa are now. A lot of things have shifted, including the manager twice and the current boss is charged with keeping the club in the top-flight this season. Since being appointed on 21 October, Dyche has accumulated 10 Premier League points and the side are just above the relegation zone with 19 games of the season remaining.
