Villa against Forest: Top-Flight Build-Up
Opening Thoughts
Welcome everyone to this Premier League fixture between Aston Villa and Nottingham 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 following a loss as Villa were beaten 4-1 by top-of-the-table Arsenal and Forest lost 2-0 to Everton.
It will be a difficult task for Forest to come away with 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 maybe it’s new year, new story? The answer will be revealed very soon.
The starting lineups will be announced shortly before the start at 12.30pm GMT.
Starting Elevens
The lineups have been confirmed. The Villa boss has made a quartet of alterations to his first eleven 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.
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
Nottingham Forest manager Sean Dyche has said on his opponent today:
"He has done a excellent job as a manager there. Their signings has been strong - spent a lot of money, to be fair, on some excellent players and they’ve shaped it into a strong side, so definitely a challenging game.
We’ve just demonstrated lately, we’ve taken on some of the larger clubs, or the ones that are favoured every year, and done very well against them - and a couple of teams perhaps not as highly-rated, we haven’t done as well against them. That’s likely the challenge of the group - rising to the expectation of each game rather than just the big games."
Transfer Update
Harvey Elliott 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 stated:
"I am respecting him as much as possible because he’s a top professional, very respectful. 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 persuaded to sign him, spending the money we would need to."
League Context
How times change. This time last year Forest were in third place in the table, where Aston Villa are now. A lot of things have changed, including the manager twice and the current boss is charged with keeping the club in the top-flight this season. Since being appointed on 21 October, Dyche has secured 10 Premier League points and the side are just above the relegation zone with 19 games of the season to go.
