🔗 Share this article Aston Villa v Forest: Top-Flight Build-Up Preamble Greetings and welcome to this English top-flight encounter between Aston Villa and Forest. Villa will be the favourites to win in this early kick-off as they are flying this season and are currently in third, while Nottingham Forest are 17th and just a handful of points outside of the relegation zone. Both clubs are entering the game on the back of a defeat as Villa were beaten 4-1 by league-leading Arsenal and Forest succumbed 2-0 to Everton. It will be a challenging task for the visitors to obtain all three points with Villa having one of the best home records in Europe at the moment and they also achieved a team record of 36 wins across all competitions this season. But perhaps it’s new year, new story? The answer will be revealed very soon. The team news will be released shortly before the start at 12.30pm GMT. Team News The starting XIs have been announced. The Villa boss has made a quartet of alterations to his first eleven who lost 4-1 to Arsenal in their previous match. 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 adjustments 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. Bench: Sels, Morato, Awoniyi, Luiz, Kalimuendo, McAtee, Zinchenko, Savona, Abbott. Pre-Match Quotes Forest boss Sean Dyche has commented on his opponent today: "He’s [Unai Emery] done a excellent job as a manager there. Their transfer business has been impressive - spent a lot of money, to be fair, on some top players and they’ve shaped it into a strong side, so certainly a challenging game. We’ve just demonstrated lately, we’ve taken on some of the larger clubs, or the ones that are fancied every year, and held our own against them - and a couple of teams maybe not as fancied, we haven’t done as well against them. That’s likely the challenge of the group - meeting the expectation of each game rather than just the big games." Squad News The midfielder has will not be staying at Aston Villa, news that was revealed by the manager Emery in the build-up to this match. The boss commented: "I am respecting him as much as possible because he’s a top 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 sign him, spending the money we need." Form Guide How times change. This time last year Nottingham Forest were third in the table, where Aston Villa are now. A lot of things have altered, including the manager on two occasions and Sean Dyche is tasked 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 outside the bottom three with 19 games of the season remaining.
Preamble Greetings and welcome to this English top-flight encounter between Aston Villa and Forest. Villa will be the favourites to win in this early kick-off as they are flying this season and are currently in third, while Nottingham Forest are 17th and just a handful of points outside of the relegation zone. Both clubs are entering the game on the back of a defeat as Villa were beaten 4-1 by league-leading Arsenal and Forest succumbed 2-0 to Everton. It will be a challenging task for the visitors to obtain all three points with Villa having one of the best home records in Europe at the moment and they also achieved a team record of 36 wins across all competitions this season. But perhaps it’s new year, new story? The answer will be revealed very soon. The team news will be released shortly before the start at 12.30pm GMT.
Team News The starting XIs have been announced. The Villa boss has made a quartet of alterations to his first eleven who lost 4-1 to Arsenal in their previous match. 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 adjustments 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. Bench: Sels, Morato, Awoniyi, Luiz, Kalimuendo, McAtee, Zinchenko, Savona, Abbott.
Pre-Match Quotes Forest boss Sean Dyche has commented on his opponent today: "He’s [Unai Emery] done a excellent job as a manager there. Their transfer business has been impressive - spent a lot of money, to be fair, on some top players and they’ve shaped it into a strong side, so certainly a challenging game. We’ve just demonstrated lately, we’ve taken on some of the larger clubs, or the ones that are fancied every year, and held our own against them - and a couple of teams maybe not as fancied, we haven’t done as well against them. That’s likely the challenge of the group - meeting the expectation of each game rather than just the big games."
Squad News The midfielder has will not be staying at Aston Villa, news that was revealed by the manager Emery in the build-up to this match. The boss commented: "I am respecting him as much as possible because he’s a top 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 sign him, spending the money we need."
Form Guide How times change. This time last year Nottingham Forest were third in the table, where Aston Villa are now. A lot of things have altered, including the manager on two occasions and Sean Dyche is tasked 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 outside the bottom three with 19 games of the season remaining.