🔗 Share this article Aston Villa against Nottingham Forest: Top-Flight Build-Up Opening Thoughts Greetings and welcome to this English top-flight clash between Villa and Forest. Aston Villa are the strong favourites to win in this lunchtime start as they are flying this season and are currently sitting third, while Forest are 17th and just a handful of points outside of the drop zone. Both clubs are entering the game following a defeat as Villa were beaten 4-1 by league-leading Arsenal and Forest lost 2-0 to Everton. This promises to be a tough task for the visitors to secure all three points with Villa possessing one of the best home records in Europe at the moment and they also recorded a club record of 36 wins across all competitions this season. But perhaps it’s a new year and a new narrative? We will find out very soon. The starting lineups will be announced shortly before kick-off at 12.30pm GMT. Confirmed Lineups The lineups have been confirmed. The Villa boss has made four changes to his starting lineup who were defeated by 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. Pre-Match Quotes Forest boss Sean Dyche has commented on his counterpart today: "Emery has delivered a excellent job as a manager there. Their signings has been impressive - spent a lot of money, to be fair, on some excellent players and they’ve moulded it into a cohesive team, 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 done very well against them - and a couple of teams maybe not as fancied, we struggled more against them. That’s probably the challenge of the group - rising to the challenge of each game rather than just the big games." Player Situation The midfielder has will not be staying at Aston Villa, an update 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 he’s a very good professional, very dedicated. 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 convinced to make the move permanent, committing the money we need." League Context The tables have turned. This time last year Nottingham Forest were in third place in the table, where Villa are now. A lot of things have altered, including the manager on two occasions and Sean Dyche 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 outside the relegation zone with 19 games of the season remaining.
Opening Thoughts Greetings and welcome to this English top-flight clash between Villa and Forest. Aston Villa are the strong favourites to win in this lunchtime start as they are flying this season and are currently sitting third, while Forest are 17th and just a handful of points outside of the drop zone. Both clubs are entering the game following a defeat as Villa were beaten 4-1 by league-leading Arsenal and Forest lost 2-0 to Everton. This promises to be a tough task for the visitors to secure all three points with Villa possessing one of the best home records in Europe at the moment and they also recorded a club record of 36 wins across all competitions this season. But perhaps it’s a new year and a new narrative? We will find out very soon. The starting lineups will be announced shortly before kick-off at 12.30pm GMT.
Confirmed Lineups The lineups have been confirmed. The Villa boss has made four changes to his starting lineup who were defeated by 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.
Pre-Match Quotes Forest boss Sean Dyche has commented on his counterpart today: "Emery has delivered a excellent job as a manager there. Their signings has been impressive - spent a lot of money, to be fair, on some excellent players and they’ve moulded it into a cohesive team, 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 done very well against them - and a couple of teams maybe not as fancied, we struggled more against them. That’s probably the challenge of the group - rising to the challenge of each game rather than just the big games."
Player Situation The midfielder has will not be staying at Aston Villa, an update 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 he’s a very good professional, very dedicated. 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 convinced to make the move permanent, committing the money we need."
League Context The tables have turned. This time last year Nottingham Forest were in third place in the table, where Villa are now. A lot of things have altered, including the manager on two occasions and Sean Dyche 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 outside the relegation zone with 19 games of the season remaining.