Villa against Nottingham Forest: Top-Flight Preview
Introduction
Welcome everyone to this English top-flight fixture between Villa and Forest. Villa will be the expected winners to win in this lunchtime start as they are soaring this season and are currently occupying third place, while Forest are in 17th position and just a handful of points outside of the relegation zone.
Both clubs are entering the game off of the back of a setback as Villa were overcome 4-1 by league-leading Arsenal and Forest succumbed 2-0 to Everton.
It will be a difficult task for the visitors to secure all three points with Villa boasting one of the best home records in Europe at the moment and they also set 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 confirmed XIs 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 starting lineup who lost 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.
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.
Dugout Insights
Forest boss Sean Dyche has said on his counterpart today:
"He has done a excellent job as a manager there. Their signings has been impressive - spent a lot of money, to be fair, on some very good players and they’ve moulded it into a good unit, so certainly a tough game.
We’ve just shown 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 fancied, we haven’t done as well against them. That’s likely the challenge of the group - meeting the challenge of each game rather than just the big games."
Player Situation
Harvey Elliott has will not be staying at Aston Villa, an update that was stated by the manager Unai Emery in the build-up to this match. The boss stated:
"I am respecting him as much as possible because he’s a top professional, very dedicated. The issue we have with Harvey is this year he is a loan player and if he is playing matches, we must buy him. We decided two months ago we are not persuaded to sign him, committing the money we need."
Season Snapshot
The tables have turned. This time last year Nottingham Forest were third in the table, where Villa are now. A lot of things have changed, including the manager twice and Sean Dyche is tasked with keeping the club in the Premier League this season. Since being named manager on 21 October, Dyche has secured 10 Premier League points and the side are just above the relegation zone with 19 games of the season remaining.