Aston Villa against Forest: Top-Flight Preview
Preamble
Welcome everyone to this English top-flight encounter between 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 in third, while Nottingham Forest are 17th and just four points outside of the drop zone.
The two teams are coming into the game off of the back of a setback as Villa were overcome 4-1 by top-of-the-table Arsenal and Forest fell 2-0 to Everton.
This shapes up as a difficult task for Forest to obtain 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 maybe it’s new year, new story? All will become clear very soon.
The confirmed XIs will be announced shortly before the start at 12.30pm GMT.
Starting Elevens
The starting XIs have been announced. The Villa boss has made a quartet of alterations to his starting XI who were defeated by 4-1 to Arsenal last time out.
Aston 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 loss to Everton.
Nottingham 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 said on his opponent today:
"He has done a great job as a manager there. Their transfer business has been good - invested a lot of money, to be fair, on some excellent players and they’ve forged it into a good unit, so definitely a difficult game.
We’ve just shown lately, we’ve faced some of the top sides, or the ones that are favoured every year, and held our own against them - and a couple of teams perhaps not as highly-rated, we haven't performed as strongly against them. That’s probably the test of the group - rising to the expectation of each game rather than just the major fixtures."
Player Situation
The midfielder has no future at Aston Villa, an update that was confirmed by the manager Emery in the lead-up to this match. The boss commented:
"I am respecting him all we can because he’s a very good professional, very dedicated. The issue we have with Harvey is this year he is a loan player and if he is playing matches, we must buy him. We decided two months ago we are not convinced to sign him, committing the money we need."
Form Guide
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 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 to go.
