🔗 Share this article Villa v Nottingham Forest: Premier League Preview Preamble Hello and welcome to this English top-flight fixture between Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest. The home side are the strong favourites to win in this early kick-off as they are flying this season and are currently in third, while Nottingham Forest are in 17th position and just four points outside of the drop zone. Both clubs are coming into the game following a loss as Villa were beaten 4-1 by league-leading Arsenal and Forest fell 2-0 to Everton. This promises to 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 set a club record of 36 wins across all competitions this season. But perhaps it’s new year, new story? All will become clear very soon. The team news will be released shortly before the start at 12.30pm GMT. Team News The team news is in. The Villa boss has made four changes to his starting lineup who lost 4-1 to Arsenal in their previous match. 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. Bench: Sels, Morato, Awoniyi, Luiz, Kalimuendo, McAtee, Zinchenko, Savona, Abbott. Manager Comments Nottingham Forest manager Sean Dyche has commented on his opponent today: "He has done a excellent job as a manager there. Their recruitment has been strong - invested a lot of money, to be fair, on some very good players and they’ve moulded it into a good unit, so certainly a difficult game. We’ve just demonstrated lately, we’ve played against some of the bigger teams, or the ones that are tipped every year, and held our own against them - and a couple of teams perhaps not as fancied, we struggled more against them. That’s probably the test of the group - meeting the challenge of each game rather than just the major fixtures." Transfer Update The midfielder has will not be staying at Aston Villa, an update that was confirmed by the manager Unai Emery in the build-up to this match. The boss said: "I am respecting him all we can because he’s a excellent professional, very respectful. 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 decided two months ago we are not convinced to sign him, committing the money we would need to." Season Snapshot 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 changed, including the manager twice and Sean Dyche is charged 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 outside the bottom three with 19 games of the season remaining.
Preamble Hello and welcome to this English top-flight fixture between Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest. The home side are the strong favourites to win in this early kick-off as they are flying this season and are currently in third, while Nottingham Forest are in 17th position and just four points outside of the drop zone. Both clubs are coming into the game following a loss as Villa were beaten 4-1 by league-leading Arsenal and Forest fell 2-0 to Everton. This promises to 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 set a club record of 36 wins across all competitions this season. But perhaps it’s new year, new story? All will become clear very soon. The team news will be released shortly before the start at 12.30pm GMT.
Team News The team news is in. The Villa boss has made four changes to his starting lineup who lost 4-1 to Arsenal in their previous match. 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. Bench: Sels, Morato, Awoniyi, Luiz, Kalimuendo, McAtee, Zinchenko, Savona, Abbott.
Manager Comments Nottingham Forest manager Sean Dyche has commented on his opponent today: "He has done a excellent job as a manager there. Their recruitment has been strong - invested a lot of money, to be fair, on some very good players and they’ve moulded it into a good unit, so certainly a difficult game. We’ve just demonstrated lately, we’ve played against some of the bigger teams, or the ones that are tipped every year, and held our own against them - and a couple of teams perhaps not as fancied, we struggled more against them. That’s probably the test of the group - meeting the challenge of each game rather than just the major fixtures."
Transfer Update The midfielder has will not be staying at Aston Villa, an update that was confirmed by the manager Unai Emery in the build-up to this match. The boss said: "I am respecting him all we can because he’s a excellent professional, very respectful. 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 decided two months ago we are not convinced to sign him, committing the money we would need to."
Season Snapshot 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 changed, including the manager twice and Sean Dyche is charged 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 outside the bottom three with 19 games of the season remaining.