🔗 Share this article Villa v Nottingham Forest: Top-Flight Build-Up Preamble Hello and welcome to this English top-flight clash between Villa and Nottingham Forest. Aston Villa are the expected winners to win in this lunchtime start as they are soaring this season and are currently in third, while Nottingham Forest are seventeenth and just a handful of points outside of the relegation zone. Each side are coming into the game following a defeat as Villa were defeated 4-1 by top-of-the-table Arsenal and Forest lost 2-0 to Everton. This shapes up as a challenging task for Sean Dyche’s side to obtain all three points with Villa possessing one of the best home records in Europe at the moment and they also achieved a club record of 36 wins across all competitions this season. But perhaps it’s new year, new story? We will find out very soon. The confirmed XIs will be released shortly before the start at 12.30pm GMT. Confirmed Lineups The starting XIs have been announced. Unai Emery has made a quartet of alterations to his first eleven who lost 4-1 to Arsenal last time out. Aston 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 also made four changes to their starting squad after a 2-0 loss 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. Dugout Insights Nottingham Forest manager Sean Dyche has commented on his counterpart today: "He has done a great job as a manager there. Their recruitment has been good - invested a lot of money, to be fair, on some top players and they’ve forged it into a strong side, so definitely a difficult game. We’ve just shown lately, we’ve faced some of the bigger teams, or the ones that are fancied every year, and done very well against them - and a couple of teams maybe not as highly-rated, we struggled more against them. That’s probably the challenge of the group - meeting the expectation of each game rather than just the major fixtures." Squad News The midfielder has no future at Aston Villa, news that was stated by the manager Unai Emery in the lead-up to this match. The boss commented: "I am respecting him all we can because he’s a very good professional, very respectful. The situation 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 make the move permanent, committing the money we would need to." Form Guide What a difference a year makes. This time last year Nottingham Forest were in third place in the table, where Aston Villa are now. A lot of things have shifted, including the manager on two occasions and Sean Dyche is charged 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 bottom three with 19 games of the season to go.
Preamble Hello and welcome to this English top-flight clash between Villa and Nottingham Forest. Aston Villa are the expected winners to win in this lunchtime start as they are soaring this season and are currently in third, while Nottingham Forest are seventeenth and just a handful of points outside of the relegation zone. Each side are coming into the game following a defeat as Villa were defeated 4-1 by top-of-the-table Arsenal and Forest lost 2-0 to Everton. This shapes up as a challenging task for Sean Dyche’s side to obtain all three points with Villa possessing one of the best home records in Europe at the moment and they also achieved a club record of 36 wins across all competitions this season. But perhaps it’s new year, new story? We will find out very soon. The confirmed XIs will be released shortly before the start at 12.30pm GMT.
Confirmed Lineups The starting XIs have been announced. Unai Emery has made a quartet of alterations to his first eleven who lost 4-1 to Arsenal last time out. Aston 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 also made four changes to their starting squad after a 2-0 loss 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.
Dugout Insights Nottingham Forest manager Sean Dyche has commented on his counterpart today: "He has done a great job as a manager there. Their recruitment has been good - invested a lot of money, to be fair, on some top players and they’ve forged it into a strong side, so definitely a difficult game. We’ve just shown lately, we’ve faced some of the bigger teams, or the ones that are fancied every year, and done very well against them - and a couple of teams maybe not as highly-rated, we struggled more against them. That’s probably the challenge of the group - meeting the expectation of each game rather than just the major fixtures."
Squad News The midfielder has no future at Aston Villa, news that was stated by the manager Unai Emery in the lead-up to this match. The boss commented: "I am respecting him all we can because he’s a very good professional, very respectful. The situation 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 make the move permanent, committing the money we would need to."
Form Guide What a difference a year makes. This time last year Nottingham Forest were in third place in the table, where Aston Villa are now. A lot of things have shifted, including the manager on two occasions and Sean Dyche is charged 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 bottom three with 19 games of the season to go.