Villa against Nottingham Forest: Premier League Build-Up
Opening Thoughts
Welcome everyone to this English top-flight clash between Villa and Forest. The home side 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 seventeenth and just four points outside of the drop zone.
Each side are entering the game following a defeat as Villa were overcome 4-1 by league-leading Arsenal and Forest lost 2-0 to Everton.
It will be a tough task for Sean Dyche’s side to secure all three points with Villa boasting 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? The answer will be revealed very soon.
The confirmed XIs will be announced shortly before kick-off at 12.30pm GMT.
Team News
The starting XIs have been announced. Unai Emery has made four changes to his starting lineup who were defeated by 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.
Nottingham Forest have also 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.
Substitutes: Sels, Morato, Awoniyi, Luiz, Kalimuendo, McAtee, Zinchenko, Savona, Abbott.
Dugout Insights
Forest boss Sean Dyche has said on his counterpart today:
"Emery has delivered a great job as a manager there. Their transfer business has been strong - invested a lot of money, to be fair, on some excellent players and they’ve forged it into a strong side, so definitely a difficult game.
We’ve just shown lately, we’ve taken on some of the top sides, or the ones that are fancied every year, and held our own against them - and a couple of teams maybe not as fancied, we haven't performed as strongly against them. That’s probably the challenge of the group - meeting the challenge of each game rather than just the big games."
Player Situation
The midfielder 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:
"I am respecting him all we can because he’s a excellent 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 decided two months ago we are not persuaded to sign him, spending the money we need."
League Context
What a difference a year makes. This time last year Forest were third in the table, where Villa are now. A lot of things have altered, including the manager on two occasions and the current boss is tasked with keeping the club in the Premier League this season. Since being appointed on 21 October, Dyche has accumulated 10 Premier League points and the side are just outside the relegation zone with 19 games of the season remaining.
