🔗 Share this article Aston Villa versus Forest: Top-Flight Match Preview Preamble Hello and welcome to this English top-flight fixture between Villa and Nottingham Forest. Villa will be the favourites to win in this lunchtime start as they are soaring this season and are currently sitting third, while Forest are 17th and just four points outside of the relegation zone. The two teams are entering the game off of the back of a setback as Villa were beaten 4-1 by league-leading Arsenal and Forest succumbed 2-0 to Everton. This promises to be a tough task for Forest to come away with all three points with Villa having one of the best home forms in Europe at the moment and they also achieved a team record of 36 wins across all competitions this season. But maybe it’s a new year and a new narrative? We will find out very soon. The team news will be released shortly before kick-off at 12.30pm GMT. Starting Elevens The starting XIs have been announced. The Villa boss has made a quartet of alterations to his first eleven who were defeated by 4-1 to Arsenal last time around. Villa: Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Lindelof, Maatsen, Kamara, Tielemans, McGinn, Buendia, Rogers, Watkins. Bench: Bizot, Digne, Sancho, Garcia, Carroll, Bogarde, Hemmings, Malen, Jimoh-Aloba. Forest have likewise made four adjustments 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. Pre-Match Quotes Forest boss Sean Dyche has said on his opponent today: "He’s [Unai Emery] done a excellent job as a manager there. Their recruitment has been strong - spent a lot of money, to be fair, on some very good players and they’ve forged it into a cohesive team, so certainly a tough game. We’ve just shown lately, we’ve played against some of the bigger teams, or the ones that are tipped every year, and performed admirably against them - and a couple of teams perhaps not as fancied, we struggled more against them. That’s probably the challenge of the group - rising to the expectation of each game rather than just the major fixtures." Squad News Harvey Elliott has will not be staying at Aston Villa, an update that was revealed by the manager Emery in the lead-up to this match. The boss stated: "We respect him all we can because he’s a very good professional, very dedicated. The situation we have with Harvey is this year he is a loan player and if he is playing matches, we are obligated to 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 Nottingham Forest were third in the table, where Aston Villa are now. A lot of things have changed, 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 bottom three with 19 games of the season remaining.
Preamble Hello and welcome to this English top-flight fixture between Villa and Nottingham Forest. Villa will be the favourites to win in this lunchtime start as they are soaring this season and are currently sitting third, while Forest are 17th and just four points outside of the relegation zone. The two teams are entering the game off of the back of a setback as Villa were beaten 4-1 by league-leading Arsenal and Forest succumbed 2-0 to Everton. This promises to be a tough task for Forest to come away with all three points with Villa having one of the best home forms in Europe at the moment and they also achieved a team record of 36 wins across all competitions this season. But maybe it’s a new year and a new narrative? We will find out very soon. The team news will be released shortly before kick-off at 12.30pm GMT.
Starting Elevens The starting XIs have been announced. The Villa boss has made a quartet of alterations to his first eleven who were defeated by 4-1 to Arsenal last time around. Villa: Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Lindelof, Maatsen, Kamara, Tielemans, McGinn, Buendia, Rogers, Watkins. Bench: Bizot, Digne, Sancho, Garcia, Carroll, Bogarde, Hemmings, Malen, Jimoh-Aloba. Forest have likewise made four adjustments 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.
Pre-Match Quotes Forest boss Sean Dyche has said on his opponent today: "He’s [Unai Emery] done a excellent job as a manager there. Their recruitment has been strong - spent a lot of money, to be fair, on some very good players and they’ve forged it into a cohesive team, so certainly a tough game. We’ve just shown lately, we’ve played against some of the bigger teams, or the ones that are tipped every year, and performed admirably against them - and a couple of teams perhaps not as fancied, we struggled more against them. That’s probably the challenge of the group - rising to the expectation of each game rather than just the major fixtures."
Squad News Harvey Elliott has will not be staying at Aston Villa, an update that was revealed by the manager Emery in the lead-up to this match. The boss stated: "We respect him all we can because he’s a very good professional, very dedicated. The situation we have with Harvey is this year he is a loan player and if he is playing matches, we are obligated to 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 Nottingham Forest were third in the table, where Aston Villa are now. A lot of things have changed, 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 bottom three with 19 games of the season remaining.