STAR FOOTBALL PREVIEW Sat: Nottingham Forest v Aston Villa

Both Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa are enjoying fine seasons so far, and there may not be much to separate them tonight at the City Ground, writes WILLIAM KEDJANYI.

The pair are separated only by goal difference heading into this gameweek, with Forest fifth and Villa sixth, and they should approach today with plenty of confidence. Under Nuno Forest are flying, with red-hot striker Chris Wood leading the line with 10 goals this season and an excellent support cast of attacking talent in Morgan Gibbs-White, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Elliot Anderson and Jota Silva.

They bounced back from a 3-0 defeat at Manchester City with a thrilling win at Old Trafford last week, when they benefited from second half blunders from United keeper Andre Onana and defender Matthijs de Ligt to seal a first win at Old Trafford in nearly 30 years.

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Nottingham Forest v Aston Villa
Premier League
17:30 Sky Sports Main Event HD / Sky Sports UHD / Sky Go

LAST FIVE STATS

HEAD-TO-HEAD
FEB 2024 PREMIER LEAGUE Aston Villa 4-2 Nottingham Forest
NOV 2023 PREMIER LEAGUE Nottingham Forest 2-0 Aston Villa
APR 2023 PREMIER LEAGUE Aston Villa 2-0 Nottingham Forest
OCT 2022 PREMIER LEAGUE Nottingham Forest 1-1 Aston Villa
MAR 2019 CHAMPIONSHIP Nottingham Forest 1-3 Aston Villa

NOTTINGHAM FOREST
DEC 2024 PREMIER LEAGUE Man Utd 2-3 Nottingham Forest
DEC 2024 PREMIER LEAGUE Man City 3-0 Nottingham Forest
NOV 2024 PREMIER LEAGUE Nottingham Forest 1-0 Ipswich
NOV 2024 PREMIER LEAGUE Arsenal 3-0 Nottingham Forest
NOV 2024 PREMIER LEAGUE Nottingham Forest 1-3 Newcastle

ASTON VILLA
DEC 2024 CHAMPIONS LEAGUE RB Leipzig 2-3 Aston Villa
DEC 2024 PREMIER LEAGUE Aston Villa 1-0 Southampton
DEC 2024 PREMIER LEAGUE Aston Villa 3-1 Brentford
DEC 2024 PREMIER LEAGUE Chelsea 3-0 Aston Villa
NOV 2024 CHAMPIONS LEAGUE Aston Villa 0-0 Juventus

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Aston Villa were struggling through October and November, with four straight losses in all competitions followed by a pair of draws and a 3-0 loss at Stamford Bridge, but they’ve made a much-needed return to form with three straight wins, including a thrilling 3-2 success at Leipzig in the Champions League.

That put Villa into fifth place overall, giving them a real chance of going straight through as one of the first eight sides, and after back-to-back league wins against Brentford and Southampton they’re well in the top-four race too, although this is the start of a tough run of fixtures including the visit of Manchester City next weekend and a trip to Newcastle on Boxing Day.

Unai Emery will be delighted with the impact that Jhon Duran – who scored the winner last week against Southampton – had off the bench alongside Ross Barkley in midweek and he may turn to the Colombian as a supersub once again with Ollie Watkins leading the line here.

It’s easy to make a case for either team here but there’s precious little to separate the pair and the draw looks very fairly priced at ? with starsports.bet.

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