Nottingham vs Aston Villa prediction: ENGLAND: Premier League betting tips on match 2023-11-04 14:00.
Perhaps the least surprising result of last weekend was Nottingham Forest's 3-0 defeat to Liverpool at Anfield, a tough game at the best of times which was made even more difficult by the lack of an outright striker with Chris Wood and Taiwo Awoniyi deemed not fully fit. That result stretched Forest’s winless Premier League (PL) run to six games, which leaves them just two places above the drop zone ahead of the weekend (D4, L2).
A home return can only be seen as a positive for Steve Cooper’s side given they’re yet to be beaten in PL action at the City Ground (W1, D3). Granted, Forest did let a two-goal lead slip in their latest home outing against Luton (2-2), a similar result to the corresponding fixture against Aston Villa last season when they let a 1-0 lead slip to draw 1-1.
Making the trip to Nottingham after the sad news club record appearance holder Charlie Aitken passed away during the week, Villa arrive here on the back of an imperious six-game unbeaten run in all competitions (W5, D1) which has seen them net over three goals per-match on average and lead at half-time four times. If that’s not enough to boost the ego of the Villans, add to the mix that World Cup winning keeper Emiliano Martinez picked up the prestigious Yashin Trophy at the Ballon d’Or awards ceremony during the week.
Even having the best performing goalkeeper in the world hasn’t stopped Villa from keeping just one clean sheet across their last seven matches, yet they only fell behind on two occasions in the process. Such sloppy defensive work mixed with positive form has made for some highly entertaining games as only PL matches involving Brighton (4.2) have averaged more total goals per-match than Villa’s four ahead of the round!
Players to watch: Forest will hope to have Awoniyi available from the outset here, but just one of his last four scoring appearances for the club ended in victory (W1, D1, L2). Part of a Villa back line trying to stop him, Lucas Digne is one yellow card away from suspension (YC4).
Hot stat: Nine of the 11 total goals scored in Forest’s home league games came after HT.