Villa versus Forest: Top-Flight Build-Up
Preamble
Greetings and welcome to this Premier League fixture between Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest. Villa will be the strong favourites to win in this early kick-off as they are flying this season and are currently in third, while Forest are seventeenth and just a handful of points outside of the relegation zone.
Both clubs are entering the game following a setback as Villa were overcome 4-1 by league-leading Arsenal and Forest lost 2-0 to Everton.
This shapes up as a tough task for the visitors to secure 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? We will find out very soon.
The confirmed XIs will be released shortly before the start at 12.30pm GMT.
Confirmed Lineups
The starting XIs have been announced. The Villa boss has made a quartet of alterations to his starting lineup who lost 4-1 to Arsenal last time out.
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 matchday 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
Nottingham Forest manager Sean Dyche has said on his opponent today:
"He’s [Unai Emery] done a great job as a manager there. Their signings has been impressive - spent a lot of money, to be fair, on some excellent players and they’ve shaped it into a cohesive team, so certainly a difficult game.
We’ve just demonstrated lately, we’ve faced some of the larger clubs, or the ones that are favoured every year, and performed admirably against them - and a couple of teams maybe not as fancied, we struggled more against them. That’s likely the challenge of the group - rising to the challenge of each game rather than just the major fixtures."
Squad News
Harvey Elliott has no future at Aston Villa, news that was confirmed by the manager Unai Emery in the build-up to this match. The boss said:
"We respect him as much as possible because he’s a top professional, very respectful. 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 convinced to make the move permanent, spending the money we need."
Season Snapshot
How times change. This time last year Forest were in third place in the table, where Villa are now. A lot of things have shifted, including the manager on two occasions and the current boss is charged with keeping the club in the Premier League this season. Since being named manager 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.
