🔗 Share this article Aston Villa v Forest: Premier League Match Preview Introduction Hello and welcome to this Premier League encounter between Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest. Villa will be the expected winners to win in this lunchtime start as they are excelling this season and are currently in third, while Nottingham Forest are in 17th position and just four points outside of the drop zone. Each side are entering the game off of the back of a defeat as Villa were defeated 4-1 by league-leading Arsenal and Forest succumbed 2-0 to Everton. This shapes up as a challenging task for Forest to secure all three points with Villa possessing 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? All will become clear very soon. The team news will drop shortly before kick-off at 12.30pm GMT. Confirmed Lineups The starting XIs have been announced. The Villa boss has made a quartet of alterations to his starting lineup who were defeated by 4-1 to Arsenal in their previous match. 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 likewise made four changes to their matchday squad after a 2-0 loss 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. Pre-Match Quotes Forest boss Sean Dyche has remarked on his opponent today: "He’s [Unai Emery] done a great job as a manager there. Their signings has been good - spent a lot of money, to be fair, on some top players and they’ve shaped it into a good unit, so definitely a challenging game. We’ve just shown lately, we’ve faced 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 struggled more against them. That’s probably the challenge of the group - rising to the challenge of each game rather than just the major fixtures." Transfer Update The midfielder has will not be staying at Aston Villa, news that was confirmed 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 very good professional, very respectful. The problem we have with Harvey is this year he is a loan player and if he is featuring regularly, we must buy him. We decided two months ago we are not convinced to sign him, committing the money we would need to." Form Guide The tables have turned. This time last year Forest were third in the table, where Villa are now. A lot of things have changed, including the manager twice and Sean Dyche is tasked with keeping the club in the top-flight this season. Since being named manager on 21 October, Dyche has secured 10 Premier League points and the side are just outside the bottom three with 19 games of the season remaining.
Introduction Hello and welcome to this Premier League encounter between Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest. Villa will be the expected winners to win in this lunchtime start as they are excelling this season and are currently in third, while Nottingham Forest are in 17th position and just four points outside of the drop zone. Each side are entering the game off of the back of a defeat as Villa were defeated 4-1 by league-leading Arsenal and Forest succumbed 2-0 to Everton. This shapes up as a challenging task for Forest to secure all three points with Villa possessing 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? All will become clear very soon. The team news will drop shortly before kick-off at 12.30pm GMT.
Confirmed Lineups The starting XIs have been announced. The Villa boss has made a quartet of alterations to his starting lineup who were defeated by 4-1 to Arsenal in their previous match. 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 likewise made four changes to their matchday squad after a 2-0 loss 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.
Pre-Match Quotes Forest boss Sean Dyche has remarked on his opponent today: "He’s [Unai Emery] done a great job as a manager there. Their signings has been good - spent a lot of money, to be fair, on some top players and they’ve shaped it into a good unit, so definitely a challenging game. We’ve just shown lately, we’ve faced 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 struggled more against them. That’s probably the challenge of the group - rising to the challenge of each game rather than just the major fixtures."
Transfer Update The midfielder has will not be staying at Aston Villa, news that was confirmed 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 very good professional, very respectful. The problem we have with Harvey is this year he is a loan player and if he is featuring regularly, we must buy him. We decided two months ago we are not convinced to sign him, committing the money we would need to."
Form Guide The tables have turned. This time last year Forest were third in the table, where Villa are now. A lot of things have changed, including the manager twice and Sean Dyche is tasked with keeping the club in the top-flight this season. Since being named manager on 21 October, Dyche has secured 10 Premier League points and the side are just outside the bottom three with 19 games of the season remaining.