Introduction
Greetings and welcome to this English top-flight encounter between Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest. Villa will be the favourites to win in this lunchtime start as they are excelling this season and are currently sitting third, while Forest are seventeenth and just four points outside of the relegation zone.
The two teams are coming into the game following a defeat as Villa were beaten 4-1 by top-of-the-table Arsenal and Forest succumbed 2-0 to Everton.
This shapes up as a tough task for Sean Dyche’s side to secure all three points with Villa possessing one of the best home records in Europe at the moment and they also set a club record of 36 wins across all competitions this season. But maybe it’s a new year and a new narrative? All will become clear very soon.
The confirmed XIs will be announced shortly before kick-off at 12.30pm GMT.
Confirmed Lineups
The team news is in. Unai Emery has made four changes to his starting lineup who were defeated by 4-1 to Arsenal in their previous match.
Aston 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 likewise made four adjustments to their matchday 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
Nottingham Forest manager Sean Dyche has commented on his opponent today:
"He has done a excellent job as a manager there. Their signings has been good - invested a lot of money, to be fair, on some top players and they’ve moulded it into a cohesive team, so definitely a difficult game.
We’ve just demonstrated lately, we’ve faced some of the bigger teams, 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 probably the test of the group - rising to the challenge of each game rather than just the major fixtures."
Player Situation
The midfielder has will not be staying at Aston Villa, an update that was stated by the manager Unai Emery in the lead-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 on loan and if he is featuring regularly, we are obligated to buy him. We decided two months ago we are not convinced to sign him, spending the money we need."
League Context
What a difference a year makes. 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 Sean Dyche is tasked with keeping the club in the top-flight this season. Since being named manager on 21 October, Dyche has won 10 Premier League points and the side are just above the relegation zone with 19 games of the season remaining.
