Aston Villa versus Nottingham Forest: Premier League Match Preview

The lineups have been confirmed. The Villa boss has made a quartet of alterations to his starting XI 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.

Nottingham Forest have also made four adjustments 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.

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

Forest boss Sean Dyche has remarked on his opponent today:

"He has done a fantastic job as a manager there. Their transfer business has been good - invested a lot of money, to be fair, on some very good players and they’ve moulded it into a good unit, so definitely a challenging game.

We’ve just shown lately, we’ve played against some of the larger clubs, 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 haven’t done as well against them. That’s likely the test of the group - rising to the challenge of each game rather than just the big games."

The midfielder has will not be staying at Aston Villa, news that was stated by the manager Unai Emery in the build-up to this match. The boss stated:

"I am respecting 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 on loan and if he is playing matches, we are obligated to buy him. We decided two months ago we are not persuaded to sign him, committing the money we need."

The tables have turned. This time last year Forest were third 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 Premier League this season. Since being appointed 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 remaining.