🔗 Share this article Aston Villa against Nottingham Forest: Top-Flight Build-Up Introduction Greetings and welcome to this Premier League encounter between Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest. Villa will be the expected winners to win in this early kick-off as they are flying this season and are currently occupying third place, while Nottingham Forest are seventeenth and just a handful of points outside of the relegation zone. Both clubs are coming into the game following a defeat as Villa were overcome 4-1 by top-of-the-table Arsenal and Forest succumbed 2-0 to Everton. This shapes up as a tough task for Forest to come away with all three points with Villa having one of the best home forms in Europe at the moment and they also achieved a team record of 36 wins across all competitions this season. But perhaps it’s new year, new story? All will become clear very soon. The starting lineups will be released shortly before kick-off at 12.30pm GMT. Confirmed Lineups The starting XIs have been announced. Unai Emery has made four changes to his starting lineup who lost 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. Nottingham Forest have also made four changes to their matchday squad after a 2-0 defeat 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. Dugout Insights Forest boss Sean Dyche has said on his counterpart today: "Emery has delivered a great job as a manager there. Their signings has been impressive - 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 top sides, or the ones that are tipped every year, and done very well against them - and a couple of teams maybe not as highly-rated, we haven't performed as strongly 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 no future at Aston Villa, news that was revealed by the manager Emery in the build-up to this match. The boss said: "We respect him as much as possible because he’s a very good professional, very respectful. The problem we have with Harvey is this year he is a loan player and if he is playing matches, we are obligated to buy him. We made the decision two months ago we are not persuaded to sign him, spending the money we need." League Context What a difference a year makes. This time last year Nottingham 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 the current boss is charged with keeping the club in the Premier League this season. Since being appointed 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.
Introduction Greetings and welcome to this Premier League encounter between Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest. Villa will be the expected winners to win in this early kick-off as they are flying this season and are currently occupying third place, while Nottingham Forest are seventeenth and just a handful of points outside of the relegation zone. Both clubs are coming into the game following a defeat as Villa were overcome 4-1 by top-of-the-table Arsenal and Forest succumbed 2-0 to Everton. This shapes up as a tough task for Forest to come away with all three points with Villa having one of the best home forms in Europe at the moment and they also achieved a team record of 36 wins across all competitions this season. But perhaps it’s new year, new story? All will become clear very soon. The starting lineups will be released shortly before kick-off at 12.30pm GMT.
Confirmed Lineups The starting XIs have been announced. Unai Emery has made four changes to his starting lineup who lost 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. Nottingham Forest have also made four changes to their matchday squad after a 2-0 defeat 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.
Dugout Insights Forest boss Sean Dyche has said on his counterpart today: "Emery has delivered a great job as a manager there. Their signings has been impressive - 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 top sides, or the ones that are tipped every year, and done very well against them - and a couple of teams maybe not as highly-rated, we haven't performed as strongly 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 no future at Aston Villa, news that was revealed by the manager Emery in the build-up to this match. The boss said: "We respect him as much as possible because he’s a very good professional, very respectful. The problem we have with Harvey is this year he is a loan player and if he is playing matches, we are obligated to buy him. We made the decision two months ago we are not persuaded to sign him, spending the money we need."
League Context What a difference a year makes. This time last year Nottingham 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 the current boss is charged with keeping the club in the Premier League this season. Since being appointed 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.