🔗 Share this article Aston Villa v Nottingham Forest: Premier League Build-Up Introduction Welcome everyone to this Premier League clash between Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest. Villa will be the strong favourites to win in this early kick-off as they are flying this season and are currently sitting third, while Forest are 17th and just four points outside of the drop zone. Both clubs are entering the game off of the back of a defeat as Villa were defeated 4-1 by league-leading Arsenal and Forest fell 2-0 to Everton. It will be a tough task for the visitors to obtain all three points with Villa having one of the best home forms in Europe at the moment and they also recorded a club record of 36 wins across all competitions this season. But perhaps it’s a new year and a new narrative? We will find out very soon. The starting lineups will drop shortly before the start at 12.30pm GMT. Starting Elevens The team news is in. Unai Emery has made a quartet of alterations to his first eleven who were defeated by 4-1 to Arsenal last time out. Aston 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 adjustments to their starting squad after a 2-0 defeat to Everton. Nottingham Forest: Victor, Williams, Murillo, Anderson, Gibbs-White, Dominguez, I Jesus, Hutchinson, Bakwa, Milenkovic, Aina. Substitutes: Sels, Morato, Awoniyi, Luiz, Kalimuendo, McAtee, Zinchenko, Savona, Abbott. Manager Comments Nottingham Forest manager Sean Dyche has said on his counterpart today: "Emery has delivered a fantastic job as a manager there. Their recruitment has been strong - spent a lot of money, to be fair, on some excellent players and they’ve moulded it into a strong side, so certainly a difficult game. We’ve just demonstrated lately, we’ve taken on 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 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 no future at Aston Villa, news that was confirmed by the manager Unai Emery in the build-up to this match. The boss said: "We respect him all we can because he’s a top professional, very dedicated. The situation 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 sign him, spending 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 shifted, 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 accumulated 10 Premier League points and the side are just above the relegation zone with 19 games of the season remaining.
Introduction Welcome everyone to this Premier League clash between Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest. Villa will be the strong favourites to win in this early kick-off as they are flying this season and are currently sitting third, while Forest are 17th and just four points outside of the drop zone. Both clubs are entering the game off of the back of a defeat as Villa were defeated 4-1 by league-leading Arsenal and Forest fell 2-0 to Everton. It will be a tough task for the visitors to obtain all three points with Villa having one of the best home forms in Europe at the moment and they also recorded a club record of 36 wins across all competitions this season. But perhaps it’s a new year and a new narrative? We will find out very soon. The starting lineups will drop shortly before the start at 12.30pm GMT.
Starting Elevens The team news is in. Unai Emery has made a quartet of alterations to his first eleven who were defeated by 4-1 to Arsenal last time out. Aston 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 adjustments to their starting squad after a 2-0 defeat to Everton. Nottingham Forest: Victor, Williams, Murillo, Anderson, Gibbs-White, Dominguez, I Jesus, Hutchinson, Bakwa, Milenkovic, Aina. Substitutes: Sels, Morato, Awoniyi, Luiz, Kalimuendo, McAtee, Zinchenko, Savona, Abbott.
Manager Comments Nottingham Forest manager Sean Dyche has said on his counterpart today: "Emery has delivered a fantastic job as a manager there. Their recruitment has been strong - spent a lot of money, to be fair, on some excellent players and they’ve moulded it into a strong side, so certainly a difficult game. We’ve just demonstrated lately, we’ve taken on 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 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 no future at Aston Villa, news that was confirmed by the manager Unai Emery in the build-up to this match. The boss said: "We respect him all we can because he’s a top professional, very dedicated. The situation 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 sign him, spending 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 shifted, 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 accumulated 10 Premier League points and the side are just above the relegation zone with 19 games of the season remaining.