🔗 Share this article Aston Villa against Nottingham Forest: Premier League Build-Up Introduction Greetings and welcome to this English top-flight encounter between Villa and Nottingham Forest. Aston Villa are the favourites to win in this lunchtime start as they are flying this season and are currently occupying third place, while Forest are seventeenth and just a handful of points outside of the drop zone. Both clubs are entering the game following a defeat as Villa were overcome 4-1 by league-leading Arsenal and Forest succumbed 2-0 to Everton. This promises to be a challenging task for Sean Dyche’s side to secure all three points with Villa possessing one of the best home records in Europe at the moment and they also set a team record of 36 wins across all competitions this season. But maybe it’s a new year and a new narrative? The answer will be revealed very soon. The confirmed XIs will drop shortly before kick-off at 12.30pm GMT. Starting Elevens The lineups have been confirmed. Unai Emery has made a quartet of alterations to his starting XI who lost 4-1 to Arsenal last time out. Aston 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 also made four changes to their starting squad after a 2-0 defeat to Everton. Nott’m 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 commented on his opponent today: "He’s [Unai Emery] done a great job as a manager there. Their transfer business has been strong - spent a lot of money, to be fair, on some excellent players and they’ve shaped it into a good unit, so certainly a challenging game. We’ve just shown lately, we’ve taken on some of the larger clubs, or the ones that are fancied every year, and performed admirably against them - and a couple of teams maybe not as highly-rated, we struggled more against them. That’s probably the test of the group - rising to the challenge of each game rather than just the major fixtures." Squad News The midfielder has will not be staying at Aston Villa, news that was revealed by the manager Emery in the lead-up to this match. The boss commented: "We respect him as much as possible because he’s a excellent professional, very dedicated. The problem 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 made the decision two months ago we are not convinced to sign him, spending the money we need." Season Snapshot How times change. This time last year Nottingham Forest were in third place 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 named manager on 21 October, Dyche has won 10 Premier League points and the side are just outside the relegation zone with 19 games of the season remaining.
Introduction Greetings and welcome to this English top-flight encounter between Villa and Nottingham Forest. Aston Villa are the favourites to win in this lunchtime start as they are flying this season and are currently occupying third place, while Forest are seventeenth and just a handful of points outside of the drop zone. Both clubs are entering the game following a defeat as Villa were overcome 4-1 by league-leading Arsenal and Forest succumbed 2-0 to Everton. This promises to be a challenging task for Sean Dyche’s side to secure all three points with Villa possessing one of the best home records in Europe at the moment and they also set a team record of 36 wins across all competitions this season. But maybe it’s a new year and a new narrative? The answer will be revealed very soon. The confirmed XIs will drop shortly before kick-off at 12.30pm GMT.
Starting Elevens The lineups have been confirmed. Unai Emery has made a quartet of alterations to his starting XI who lost 4-1 to Arsenal last time out. Aston 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 also made four changes to their starting squad after a 2-0 defeat to Everton. Nott’m 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 commented on his opponent today: "He’s [Unai Emery] done a great job as a manager there. Their transfer business has been strong - spent a lot of money, to be fair, on some excellent players and they’ve shaped it into a good unit, so certainly a challenging game. We’ve just shown lately, we’ve taken on some of the larger clubs, or the ones that are fancied every year, and performed admirably against them - and a couple of teams maybe not as highly-rated, we struggled more against them. That’s probably the test of the group - rising to the challenge of each game rather than just the major fixtures."
Squad News The midfielder has will not be staying at Aston Villa, news that was revealed by the manager Emery in the lead-up to this match. The boss commented: "We respect him as much as possible because he’s a excellent professional, very dedicated. The problem 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 made the decision two months ago we are not convinced to sign him, spending the money we need."
Season Snapshot How times change. This time last year Nottingham Forest were in third place 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 named manager on 21 October, Dyche has won 10 Premier League points and the side are just outside the relegation zone with 19 games of the season remaining.