Aston Villa v Forest: Premier League Preview
Preamble
Greetings and welcome to this English top-flight fixture 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 Forest are 17th and just a handful of points outside of the drop zone.
Each side are coming into the game on the back of a setback as Villa were defeated 4-1 by league-leading Arsenal and Forest lost 2-0 to Everton.
This shapes up as a tough task for Sean Dyche’s side to obtain all three points with Villa possessing one of the best home forms in Europe at the moment and they also set a team 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 drop shortly before the start at 12.30pm GMT.
Team News
The starting XIs have been announced. Unai Emery has made a quartet of alterations to his first eleven who lost 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 also made four adjustments to their matchday squad after a 2-0 defeat 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.
Manager Comments
Nottingham Forest manager Sean Dyche has said on his counterpart today:
"He’s [Unai Emery] done a excellent 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 forged it into a good unit, so definitely a tough game.
We’ve just demonstrated lately, we’ve played against some of the top sides, or the ones that are tipped every year, and performed admirably against them - and a couple of teams perhaps not as fancied, we haven't performed as strongly against them. That’s probably the test of the group - meeting the expectation of each game rather than just the major fixtures."
Player Situation
The midfielder has will not be staying at Aston Villa, an update that was stated by the manager Unai Emery in the lead-up to this match. The boss said:
"We respect him as much as possible because he’s a very good professional, very respectful. The issue we have with Harvey is this year he is on loan and if he is featuring regularly, we must buy him. We decided two months ago we are not persuaded to make the move permanent, spending the money we would need to."
Form Guide
The tables have turned. This time last year Nottingham Forest were third in the table, where Aston Villa are now. A lot of things have shifted, including the manager twice and the current boss is tasked with keeping the club in the top-flight this season. Since being named manager on 21 October, Dyche has secured 10 Premier League points and the side are just above the relegation zone with 19 games of the season to go.
