Villa aim to bounce back against struggling Forest

Aston Villa welcomes Nottingham Forest to Villa Park in their first Premier League fixture of 2026 on Saturday’s lunchtime kickoff.

Villa were hammered 4-1 in defeat at Arsenal last time out, ending their record 11-game winning run in all competitions.

Forest suffered a 2-0 home defeat to Everton in their last outing and will be keen to return back to winning ways.

Match preview

Aston Villa are unbeaten in their last six Premier League home games against Nottingham Forest, winning the last five in a row. Their last defeat was in October 1994 under Ron Atkinson (0-2).

Nottingham Forest have won two of their last four league games against Aston Villa (L2), as many as they had in their previous 18 (D7 L9).

The Villans beat Leicester 2-1 in their first Premier League game of 2025. They’ve not won their opening league game in consecutive calendar years since 2008/2009.

The Tricky Trees have won their opening league game in five of the last seven calendar years, including a 3-0 win at Wolves in 2025. The exceptions in this run were a 1-1 draw with Chelsea in 2023 and a 2-3 loss at Brentford in 2024.

Unai Emery’s side have won their last 10 home games in all competitions, last having a longer run between October 1989 and January 1990 (11).

Villa’s 4-1 defeat at Arsenal ended their eight-game winning run in the Premier League (11 in all competitions). Only twice since the start of 2023/24 have they lost consecutive league games, doing so in November 2024 and August this season.

No team have failed to score in more different Premier League games this season than Forest (10), while only Wolves (11) have scored fewer goals than the Tricky Trees (18).

Having been unbeaten in his first three Premier League away games against Aston Villa (W1 D2), Nottingham Forest boss Sean Dyche has lost his last two at Villa Park by an aggregate score of 7-2.

Aston Villa striker Ollie Watkins has scored three goals in his last two Premier League games, as many as he had in his previous 19.

Callum Hudson-Odoi and Morgan Gibbs-White are Nottingham Forest’s top scorers in the Premier League this season with three goals each. Only Wolves have a lower-scoring top scorer in the competition this term (2).

Team news

Aston Villa

Matty Cash and Boubacar Kamara are back from suspension after serving their one-match ban in the Arsenal defeat.

Amadou Onana was forced off with a tight hamstring issue at the weekend, so he remains a doubt, while Ross Barkley, Tyrone Mings and Pau Torres are ruled out with injuries.

Evann Guessand is away on international duty at the Africa Cup of Nations.

Nottingham Forest

Ola Aina, Ryan Yates and Chris Wood are unavailable for the visitors due to injuries.

Willy Boly and Ibrahim Sangare are away at the AFCON.

Predicted line-ups

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

Nottingham Forest: Victor, Savona, Murillo, Milenkovic, Williams, Anderson, Dominguez, Hutchinson, Gibbs-White, Hudson-Odoi, Jesus.