🔗 Share this article Villa versus Nottingham Forest: Top-Flight Preview Preamble Welcome everyone to this English top-flight fixture between Aston Villa and Forest. The home side are the expected winners to win in this early kick-off as they are excelling this season and are currently in third, while Forest are seventeenth and just four points outside of the drop zone. Each side are coming into the game on the back of a loss as Villa were overcome 4-1 by top-of-the-table Arsenal and Forest succumbed 2-0 to Everton. This promises to be a difficult 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 recorded 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 starting lineups will be announced shortly before kick-off at 12.30pm GMT. Confirmed Lineups The starting XIs have been announced. Unai Emery has made a quartet of alterations to his starting lineup who were defeated by 4-1 to Arsenal last time around. Aston Villa: Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Lindelof, Maatsen, Kamara, Tielemans, McGinn, Buendia, Rogers, Watkins. Substitutes: Bizot, Digne, Sancho, Garcia, Carroll, Bogarde, Hemmings, Malen, Jimoh-Aloba. Forest have also made four changes to their starting 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 counterpart today: "He’s [Unai Emery] done a great job as a manager there. Their transfer business has been strong - spent a lot of money, to be fair, on some top players and they’ve forged it into a good unit, so certainly a tough game. We’ve just shown lately, we’ve played against some of the larger clubs, or the ones that are tipped every year, and performed admirably against them - and a couple of teams maybe not as highly-rated, we haven’t done as well against them. That’s likely the test of the group - rising to the expectation of each game rather than just the big games." Player Situation Harvey Elliott has will not be staying at Aston Villa, news that was stated by the manager Emery in the lead-up to this match. The boss stated: "I am respecting 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 persuaded to sign him, committing the money we need." Form Guide What a difference a year makes. This time last year Forest were third in the table, where Aston Villa are now. A lot of things have altered, including the manager twice and the current boss is tasked 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.
Preamble Welcome everyone to this English top-flight fixture between Aston Villa and Forest. The home side are the expected winners to win in this early kick-off as they are excelling this season and are currently in third, while Forest are seventeenth and just four points outside of the drop zone. Each side are coming into the game on the back of a loss as Villa were overcome 4-1 by top-of-the-table Arsenal and Forest succumbed 2-0 to Everton. This promises to be a difficult 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 recorded 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 starting lineups will be announced shortly before kick-off at 12.30pm GMT.
Confirmed Lineups The starting XIs have been announced. Unai Emery has made a quartet of alterations to his starting lineup who were defeated by 4-1 to Arsenal last time around. Aston Villa: Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Lindelof, Maatsen, Kamara, Tielemans, McGinn, Buendia, Rogers, Watkins. Substitutes: Bizot, Digne, Sancho, Garcia, Carroll, Bogarde, Hemmings, Malen, Jimoh-Aloba. Forest have also made four changes to their starting 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 counterpart today: "He’s [Unai Emery] done a great job as a manager there. Their transfer business has been strong - spent a lot of money, to be fair, on some top players and they’ve forged it into a good unit, so certainly a tough game. We’ve just shown lately, we’ve played against some of the larger clubs, or the ones that are tipped every year, and performed admirably against them - and a couple of teams maybe not as highly-rated, we haven’t done as well against them. That’s likely the test of the group - rising to the expectation of each game rather than just the big games."
Player Situation Harvey Elliott has will not be staying at Aston Villa, news that was stated by the manager Emery in the lead-up to this match. The boss stated: "I am respecting 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 persuaded to sign him, committing the money we need."
Form Guide What a difference a year makes. This time last year Forest were third in the table, where Aston Villa are now. A lot of things have altered, including the manager twice and the current boss is tasked 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.