Aston Villa v Forest: Premier League Build-Up
Introduction
Welcome everyone to this Premier League encounter between Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest. Aston Villa are the expected winners to win in this early kick-off as they are flying this season and are currently sitting third, while Nottingham Forest are in 17th position and just a handful of points outside of the relegation zone.
Both clubs are coming into the game on the back of a defeat as Villa were overcome 4-1 by top-of-the-table Arsenal and Forest lost 2-0 to Everton.
It will be a tough task for Forest to come away with all three points with Villa having 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 perhaps it’s new year, new story? The answer will be revealed very soon.
The confirmed XIs will be announced shortly before the start at 12.30pm GMT.
Team News
The lineups have been confirmed. Unai Emery has made four changes to his first eleven who lost 4-1 to Arsenal last time out.
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 also made four adjustments to their matchday squad after a 2-0 defeat to Everton.
Nottingham Forest: Victor, Williams, Murillo, Anderson, Gibbs-White, Dominguez, I Jesus, Hutchinson, Bakwa, Milenkovic, Aina.
Bench: Sels, Morato, Awoniyi, Luiz, Kalimuendo, McAtee, Zinchenko, Savona, Abbott.
Manager Comments
Forest boss Sean Dyche has remarked on his counterpart today:
"He has done a fantastic job as a manager there. Their signings has been strong - invested a lot of money, to be fair, on some very good players and they’ve forged it into a strong side, so certainly a difficult game.
We’ve just demonstrated lately, we’ve played against some of the bigger teams, or the ones that are tipped 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 test of the group - meeting the expectation of each game rather than just the big games."
Player Situation
The midfielder has no future at Aston Villa, an update that was revealed by the manager Unai Emery in the lead-up to this match. The boss commented:
"We respect him as much as possible because he’s a excellent professional, very respectful. The situation we have with Harvey is this year he is on loan and if he is playing matches, we must buy him. We made the decision two months ago we are not convinced to sign him, committing the money we would need to."
Season Snapshot
How times change. This time last year Forest were in third place in the table, where Villa are now. A lot of things have changed, including the manager twice and Sean Dyche is charged with keeping the club in the Premier League this season. Since being appointed on 21 October, Dyche has accumulated 10 Premier League points and the side are just above the relegation zone with 19 games of the season remaining.
