Aston Villa versus Forest: Premier League Match Preview
Preamble
Hello and welcome to this English top-flight clash between Villa and Forest. The home side are the favourites to win in this early kick-off as they are soaring this season and are currently occupying third place, while Nottingham Forest are 17th and just four points outside of the drop zone.
Both clubs are entering the game off of the back of a loss as Villa were beaten 4-1 by league-leading Arsenal and Forest fell 2-0 to Everton.
This promises to be a tough task for Sean Dycheās side to secure all three points with Villa boasting one of the best home records in Europe at the moment and they also recorded a team record of 36 wins across all competitions this season. But maybe itās new year, new story? The answer will be revealed very soon.
The starting lineups will drop shortly before the start at 12.30pm GMT.
Confirmed Lineups
The starting XIs have been announced. Unai Emery has made a quartet of alterations to his starting lineup who lost 4-1 to Arsenal last time around.
Aston Villa: Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Lindelof, Maatsen, Kamara, Tielemans, McGinn, Buendia, Rogers, Watkins.
Bench: Bizot, Digne, Sancho, Garcia, Carroll, Bogarde, Hemmings, Malen, Jimoh-Aloba.
Nottingham Forest have also made four changes to their matchday squad after a 2-0 defeat to Everton.
Nottām Forest: Victor, Williams, Murillo, Anderson, Gibbs-White, Dominguez, I Jesus, Hutchinson, Bakwa, Milenkovic, Aina.
Bench: Sels, Morato, Awoniyi, Luiz, Kalimuendo, McAtee, Zinchenko, Savona, Abbott.
Dugout Insights
Forest boss Sean Dyche has remarked on his counterpart today:
"He has done a great job as a manager there. Their transfer business has been strong - spent a lot of money, to be fair, on some very good players and theyāve moulded it into a good unit, so certainly a difficult game.
Weāve just demonstrated lately, weāve played against some of the top sides, or the ones that are favoured every year, and performed admirably against them - and a couple of teams maybe not as fancied, we haven't performed as strongly against them. Thatās probably the test of the group - meeting the challenge of each game rather than just the major fixtures."
Transfer Update
The midfielder has no future at Aston Villa, news that was stated by the manager Emery in the build-up to this match. The boss stated:
"We respect him as much as possible because heās a very good professional, very dedicated. The situation we have with Harvey is this year he is on loan and if he is featuring regularly, 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
How times change. This time last year Forest were third in the table, where Aston Villa are now. A lot of things have altered, including the manager twice and the current boss is tasked with keeping the club in the Premier League this season. Since being appointed on 21 October, Dyche has won 10 Premier League points and the side are just above the bottom three with 19 games of the season remaining.
