After suffering a disappointing loss to Bristol City before the international break, Aston Villa will be looking to get a much-needed win under their belt when they welcome Nottingham Forest to Villa Park tomorrow.
In contrast to Villa, Philippe Montanier’s men currently find themselves in an excellent bit of form, as they’ve triumphed in their last three outings.
But how will Forest perform after a break which saw them lose their brightest prospect in 19-year-old Oliver Burke, who made a shocking move to Bundesliga side RB Leipzig.
Forest form
Forest started their Championship campaign brightly with a 4-3 victory over Burton Albion on the opening day of the new season.
However, the Reds experienced a brief but difficult dip in form after that thrilling contest, as they lost two games on the road to Brighton and Brentford.
They managed to pick themselves up in impressive fashion, though, as they came out on top in another seven-goal thriller with Wigan Athletic.
Last weekend saw them secure a more convincing three points, as they beat Leeds United 3-1 at the City Ground.
Forest key man
When facing Forest, the man to look out for is usually Britt Assombalonga. The striker has made four starts in the league so far this season and already has three goals to his name.
But he looks likely to miss tomorrow’s contest through injury, so the Reds’ key man is their captain Henri Lansbury.
Lansbury, who is the lifeblood of Forest’s midfield, is yet to score this season, so he will be eager to open his account away to Villa this weekend.
Forest fan Isaac Johnson (@IsaacJohnson95), said:
On his day he has the class to turn a game with a moment of magic and is one of our biggest leaders on the pitch. It’s qualities like these that made him so highly rated by Arsene Wenger at Arsenal and, hopefully for us, some of his quality will shine through tomorrow.
Forest manager
Philippe Montanier replaced Paul Williams as the new Forest boss at the end of July. Williams was given the job on a temporary basis after the dismissal of Dougie Freedman in March.
Montanier’s first managerial job came in the form of French side Boulogne. He was in charge of the club from 2004 to 2009, and secured promotion to the top flight of French football in his final season.
After a two-year stint at Valenciennes, the Frenchman was named as the new manager of Real Sociedad in 2011.
This is where his best days were perhaps spent, as he guided the Spanish side to a 4th place finish and a Champions League spot in 2013.
After leaving Spain later that year, Montanier returned to France and spent three years in charge of Rennes, before moving to England this summer.
Their likely line-up
With Assombalonga looking unlikely to feature, Apostolos Vellios is set to fill in up top for Forest.
Midfielder Chris Cohen is also a doubt due to injury, so new signing Mustapha Carayol looks set to make his debut at Villa Park tomorrow.
The Reds are expected to line-up in a 4-5-1 formation. Henderson; Pereira, Perquis, Mancienne, Lichaj; Carayol, Lansbury (c), Kasami, Cash, Osborn; Vellios.
The predictions
Although Forest are a team in form, they haven’t yet tasted success away from home. So, I’m going for a 1-1 stalemate for tomorrow’s contest.
Isaac Johnson is in agreement, he said:
We’re a bit of an unknown quantity at the minute. We’ve looked very good at home, scoring bags of goals, but very poor away, having scored none in either of our two league games on the road so far this season. But, I’ll be “optimistic” and go for a 1-1 draw.
