Aston Villa against Forest: Premier League Build-Up
Introduction
Welcome everyone to this Premier League clash between Aston Villa and Forest. The home side are the favourites to win in this lunchtime start as they are soaring this season and are currently occupying third place, while Nottingham Forest are in 17th position and just four points outside of the drop zone.
Each side are coming into the game following a loss as Villa were overcome 4-1 by league-leading Arsenal and Forest succumbed 2-0 to Everton.
This promises to be a difficult 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 a new year and a new narrative? The answer will be revealed very soon.
The starting lineups will be announced shortly before the start at 12.30pm GMT.
Team News
The starting XIs have been announced. Unai Emery has made four changes to his first eleven who were defeated by 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 likewise made four changes 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
Nottingham Forest manager Sean Dyche has commented on his opponent today:
"Emery has delivered a great job as a manager there. Their recruitment has been strong - spent a lot of money, to be fair, on some top players and they’ve forged it into a strong side, so certainly a difficult game.
We’ve just shown lately, we’ve taken on some of the top sides, or the ones that are fancied every year, and done very well against them - and a couple of teams perhaps not as fancied, we haven't performed as strongly against them. That’s probably the test of the group - rising to the expectation of each game rather than just the big games."
Player Situation
The midfielder has will not be staying at Aston Villa, an update that was confirmed by the manager Emery in the build-up to this match. The boss said:
"I am respecting him as much as possible because he’s a very good professional, very dedicated. The issue 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 persuaded to make the move permanent, spending 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 altered, including the manager twice and the current boss is charged with keeping the club in the Premier League this season. Since being named manager 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 to go.
