🔗 Share this article Villa versus Nottingham Forest: Premier League Preview Introduction Hello and welcome to this Premier League fixture between Aston Villa and Forest. The home side are the expected winners to win in this early kick-off 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 relegation zone. The two teams are coming into the game following a defeat as Villa were overcome 4-1 by league-leading Arsenal and Forest lost 2-0 to Everton. This promises to be a tough task for Forest to secure all three points with Villa having one of the best home records 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? We will find out very soon. The confirmed XIs will be announced shortly before the start 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 around. 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 likewise 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. Pre-Match Quotes Forest boss Sean Dyche has said on his counterpart today: "Emery has delivered a excellent job as a manager there. Their recruitment has been impressive - spent a lot of money, to be fair, on some very good players and they’ve forged it into a good unit, so certainly a challenging game. We’ve just shown lately, we’ve played against some of the top sides, or the ones that are fancied every year, and done very well against them - and a couple of teams perhaps not as highly-rated, we struggled more against them. That’s probably the challenge of the group - meeting the expectation of each game rather than just the major fixtures." Player Situation Harvey Elliott has no future at Aston Villa, news that was revealed by the manager Emery in the lead-up to this match. The boss said: "I am respecting him as much as possible because he’s a excellent professional, very dedicated. The issue 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 make the move permanent, spending the money we need." League Context The tables have turned. This time last year Nottingham Forest were third in the table, where Villa are now. A lot of things have altered, including the manager on two occasions and Sean Dyche is charged with keeping the club in the Premier League this season. Since being named manager on 21 October, Dyche has accumulated 10 Premier League points and the side are just outside the bottom three with 19 games of the season to go.
Introduction Hello and welcome to this Premier League fixture between Aston Villa and Forest. The home side are the expected winners to win in this early kick-off 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 relegation zone. The two teams are coming into the game following a defeat as Villa were overcome 4-1 by league-leading Arsenal and Forest lost 2-0 to Everton. This promises to be a tough task for Forest to secure all three points with Villa having one of the best home records 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? We will find out very soon. The confirmed XIs will be announced shortly before the start 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 around. 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 likewise 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.
Pre-Match Quotes Forest boss Sean Dyche has said on his counterpart today: "Emery has delivered a excellent job as a manager there. Their recruitment has been impressive - spent a lot of money, to be fair, on some very good players and they’ve forged it into a good unit, so certainly a challenging game. We’ve just shown lately, we’ve played against some of the top sides, or the ones that are fancied every year, and done very well against them - and a couple of teams perhaps not as highly-rated, we struggled more against them. That’s probably the challenge of the group - meeting the expectation of each game rather than just the major fixtures."
Player Situation Harvey Elliott has no future at Aston Villa, news that was revealed by the manager Emery in the lead-up to this match. The boss said: "I am respecting him as much as possible because he’s a excellent professional, very dedicated. The issue 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 make the move permanent, spending the money we need."
League Context The tables have turned. This time last year Nottingham Forest were third in the table, where Villa are now. A lot of things have altered, including the manager on two occasions and Sean Dyche is charged with keeping the club in the Premier League this season. Since being named manager on 21 October, Dyche has accumulated 10 Premier League points and the side are just outside the bottom three with 19 games of the season to go.