Aston Villa versus Forest: Premier League Match Preview

The lineups have been confirmed. The Villa boss has made four changes to his starting XI who lost 4-1 to Arsenal in their previous match.

Aston Villa: Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Lindelof, Maatsen, Kamara, Tielemans, McGinn, Buendia, Rogers, Watkins.

Substitutes: Bizot, Digne, Sancho, Garcia, Carroll, Bogarde, Hemmings, Malen, Jimoh-Aloba.

Nottingham Forest have likewise 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.

Substitutes: Sels, Morato, Awoniyi, Luiz, Kalimuendo, McAtee, Zinchenko, Savona, Abbott.

Nottingham Forest manager Sean Dyche has commented on his counterpart today:

"He’s [Unai Emery] done a excellent 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 cohesive team, so certainly a tough game.

We’ve just shown lately, we’ve played against some of the top sides, or the ones that are tipped every year, and held our own against them - and a couple of teams maybe not as fancied, we struggled more against them. That’s probably the challenge of the group - rising to the challenge of each game rather than just the major fixtures."

Harvey Elliott has will not be staying at Aston Villa, an update that was confirmed by the manager Unai Emery in the lead-up to this match. The boss said:

"We respect him all we can because he’s a very good professional, very dedicated. 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 convinced to make the move permanent, committing the money we would need to."

The tables have turned. 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 the current boss is tasked 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 outside the relegation zone with 19 games of the season to go.