Villa versus Forest: Top-Flight Match Preview
Introduction
Welcome everyone to this Premier League clash between Villa and Forest. The home side are the expected winners to win in this early kick-off as they are soaring this season and are currently occupying third place, while Forest are 17th and just four points outside of the relegation zone.
The two teams are coming into the game following a setback as Villa were beaten 4-1 by league-leading Arsenal and Forest succumbed 2-0 to Everton.
This promises to be a challenging task for the visitors to come away with 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? All will become clear very soon.
The confirmed XIs will drop shortly before kick-off at 12.30pm GMT.
Starting Elevens
The starting XIs have been announced. Unai Emery has made a quartet of alterations to his starting XI 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 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.
Substitutes: Sels, Morato, Awoniyi, Luiz, Kalimuendo, McAtee, Zinchenko, Savona, Abbott.
Pre-Match Quotes
Forest boss Sean Dyche has commented on his counterpart today:
"Emery has delivered a excellent 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 forged it into a strong side, so certainly a tough game.
We’ve just demonstrated lately, we’ve played against some of the top sides, or the ones that are tipped every year, and performed admirably against them - and a couple of teams perhaps not as highly-rated, we struggled more against them. That’s likely the challenge of the group - meeting the expectation of each game rather than just the major fixtures."
Player Situation
Harvey Elliott has no future at Aston Villa, an update that was confirmed by the manager Unai Emery in the lead-up to this match. The boss said:
"We respect him as much as possible because he’s a very good professional, very dedicated. The problem we have with Harvey is this year he is on loan and if he is featuring regularly, we must buy him. We made the decision two months ago we are not convinced to make the move permanent, committing the money we need."
League Context
The tables have turned. This time last year Forest were in third place in the table, where Villa are now. A lot of things have altered, including the manager on two occasions and the current boss is tasked with keeping the club in the top-flight 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.
