Aston Villa against Forest: Premier League Build-Up
Introduction
Greetings and welcome to this Premier League encounter between Aston Villa and Forest. Villa will be the strong favourites to win in this lunchtime start as they are soaring this season and are currently occupying third place, while Forest are in 17th position and just a handful of points outside of the drop zone.
Both clubs are entering the game on the back of a loss as Villa were overcome 4-1 by league-leading Arsenal and Forest succumbed 2-0 to Everton.
It will be a difficult task for Sean Dyche’s side to come away with all three points with Villa boasting one of the best home forms in Europe at the moment and they also set a club record of 36 wins across all competitions this season. But perhaps it’s new year, new story? All will become clear very soon.
The team news will be released shortly before kick-off at 12.30pm GMT.
Team News
The starting XIs have been announced. The Villa boss has made four changes 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.
Nottingham Forest have likewise made four changes to their matchday squad after a 2-0 defeat to Everton.
Nott’m 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 remarked on his opponent today:
"He’s [Unai Emery] done a excellent job as a manager there. Their recruitment has been impressive - spent a lot of money, to be fair, on some top players and they’ve forged it into a cohesive team, so definitely a tough game.
We’ve just demonstrated lately, we’ve faced some of the bigger teams, 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 done as well against them. That’s probably the test of the group - meeting the challenge of each game rather than just the major fixtures."
Transfer Update
Harvey Elliott 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 said:
"We respect him as much as possible because he’s a top professional, very dedicated. The issue we have with Harvey is this year he is on loan and if he is playing matches, we are obligated to buy him. We decided two months ago we are not convinced to make the move permanent, committing the money we need."
Form Guide
The tables have turned. 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 Sean Dyche is charged with keeping the club in the top-flight this season. Since being appointed on 21 October, Dyche has accumulated 10 Premier League points and the side are just above the bottom three with 19 games of the season to go.
