🔗 Share this article Aston Villa versus Forest: Top-Flight Preview Introduction Welcome everyone to this Premier League clash between Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest. Villa will be the strong favourites to win in this lunchtime start as they are flying this season and are currently in third, while Nottingham Forest are seventeenth and just a handful of points outside of the relegation zone. The two teams are coming into the game on the back of a loss as Villa were defeated 4-1 by league-leading Arsenal and Forest fell 2-0 to Everton. This promises to be a difficult task for Sean Dyche’s side to obtain all three points with Villa boasting one of the best home records in Europe at the moment and they also set a team record of 36 wins across all competitions this season. But perhaps it’s new year, new story? All will become clear very soon. The team news will be announced shortly before kick-off at 12.30pm GMT. Team News 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 also made four adjustments to their matchday squad after a 2-0 loss to Everton. Nottingham Forest: Victor, Williams, Murillo, Anderson, Gibbs-White, Dominguez, I Jesus, Hutchinson, Bakwa, Milenkovic, Aina. Substitutes: Sels, Morato, Awoniyi, Luiz, Kalimuendo, McAtee, Zinchenko, Savona, Abbott. Dugout Insights Forest boss Sean Dyche has commented on his counterpart today: "He has done a great job as a manager there. Their transfer business has been impressive - spent a lot of money, to be fair, on some excellent players and they’ve forged it into a cohesive team, so certainly a challenging game. We’ve just demonstrated lately, we’ve played against some of the larger clubs, or the ones that are fancied every year, and held our own against them - and a couple of teams perhaps not as highly-rated, we haven’t done as well against them. That’s probably the test of the group - meeting the expectation of each game rather than just the major fixtures." Squad News Harvey Elliott has will not be staying at Aston Villa, news that was revealed by the manager Unai Emery in the build-up to this match. The boss said: "I am respecting him as much as possible because he’s a very good professional, very respectful. The situation we have with Harvey is this year he is on loan 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 would need to." Form Guide How times change. This time last year Forest were third in the table, where Villa are now. A lot of things have shifted, including the manager on two occasions and the current boss is charged 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 relegation zone with 19 games of the season remaining.
Introduction Welcome everyone to this Premier League clash between Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest. Villa will be the strong favourites to win in this lunchtime start as they are flying this season and are currently in third, while Nottingham Forest are seventeenth and just a handful of points outside of the relegation zone. The two teams are coming into the game on the back of a loss as Villa were defeated 4-1 by league-leading Arsenal and Forest fell 2-0 to Everton. This promises to be a difficult task for Sean Dyche’s side to obtain all three points with Villa boasting one of the best home records in Europe at the moment and they also set a team record of 36 wins across all competitions this season. But perhaps it’s new year, new story? All will become clear very soon. The team news will be announced shortly before kick-off at 12.30pm GMT.
Team News 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 also made four adjustments to their matchday squad after a 2-0 loss to Everton. Nottingham Forest: Victor, Williams, Murillo, Anderson, Gibbs-White, Dominguez, I Jesus, Hutchinson, Bakwa, Milenkovic, Aina. Substitutes: Sels, Morato, Awoniyi, Luiz, Kalimuendo, McAtee, Zinchenko, Savona, Abbott.
Dugout Insights Forest boss Sean Dyche has commented on his counterpart today: "He has done a great job as a manager there. Their transfer business has been impressive - spent a lot of money, to be fair, on some excellent players and they’ve forged it into a cohesive team, so certainly a challenging game. We’ve just demonstrated lately, we’ve played against some of the larger clubs, or the ones that are fancied every year, and held our own against them - and a couple of teams perhaps not as highly-rated, we haven’t done as well against them. That’s probably the test of the group - meeting the expectation of each game rather than just the major fixtures."
Squad News Harvey Elliott has will not be staying at Aston Villa, news that was revealed by the manager Unai Emery in the build-up to this match. The boss said: "I am respecting him as much as possible because he’s a very good professional, very respectful. The situation we have with Harvey is this year he is on loan 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 would need to."
Form Guide How times change. This time last year Forest were third in the table, where Villa are now. A lot of things have shifted, including the manager on two occasions and the current boss is charged 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 relegation zone with 19 games of the season remaining.