Villa versus Forest: Premier League Build-Up
Preamble
Greetings and welcome to this English top-flight clash between Villa and Nottingham Forest. Villa will be the favourites to win in this early kick-off as they are flying this season and are currently occupying third place, while Nottingham Forest are in 17th position and just four points outside of the relegation zone.
Each side are coming into the game off of the back of a setback as Villa were overcome 4-1 by top-of-the-table Arsenal and Forest lost 2-0 to Everton.
This promises to be a tough task for the visitors to obtain all three points with Villa possessing one of the best home forms in Europe at the moment and they also set a club record of 36 wins across all competitions this season. But maybe it’s new year, new story? We will find out very soon.
The team news will be released shortly before the start at 12.30pm GMT.
Starting Elevens
The lineups have been confirmed. Unai Emery has made four changes to his first eleven who lost 4-1 to Arsenal last time around.
Aston 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 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.
Substitutes: Sels, Morato, Awoniyi, Luiz, Kalimuendo, McAtee, Zinchenko, Savona, Abbott.
Pre-Match Quotes
Nottingham Forest manager Sean Dyche has said on his counterpart today:
"Emery has delivered a fantastic job as a manager there. Their transfer business has been strong - invested a lot of money, to be fair, on some top players and they’ve moulded it into a good unit, so certainly a tough game.
We’ve just shown 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 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 major fixtures."
Player Situation
The midfielder has no future at Aston Villa, news that was revealed by the manager Unai Emery in the build-up to this match. The boss said:
"We respect him all we can because he’s a excellent professional, very dedicated. The problem we have with Harvey is this year he is a loan player and if he is playing matches, we must buy him. We made the decision two months ago we are not persuaded to make the move permanent, committing the money we need."
Form Guide
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 secured 10 Premier League points and the side are just above the bottom three with 19 games of the season remaining.
