Villa – Forest; I’m not worried

So the Arsenal game was a big setback, but even though we got thrashed on paper, they weren’t that much better than us. Decisions went against and the ref was atrocious, to my mind.
But all good runs come to an end and it’s best to end it against a top side rather than the likes of Forest, who are struggling.

Squad news and we have seven players out.
As much as Tyrone Mings and Pau Torres were imminent starters about three weeks ago, they’re now still a couple of weeks away. This annoys me about Emery. Why say it, if you’re not sure? Either say they’re weeks away or just say nothing.
Ross Barkley is injured (ahem), Harvey Elliot isn’t going to get a look in, although I wonder if we can bung Liverpool a few quid to remove the compulsory buy thing. I suspect Emery might actually use him if he doesn’t have to lay out the transfer fee.
Evann Guessand is unavailable because of AFCON and Onana is, well, Onana AKA Mr Glass. Emery says he’ll be out longer than Mings and Pau, so that’s probably about six weeks then. Given that our midfield basically collapsed when he went off against Arse, it wouldn’t surprise me if Emery has the same sort of player in his sights. How a brute of a man like him seems to get injured so easily, is beyond me, but to be fair, he did seem to be targetted by Arsenal and their filthy dark arts.
And then there is our new signing Alysson, who I don’t expect to start, but maybe he’ll get some minutes.

As for Forest, the big news for them is that Ola Aina, a defender, is back in contention after being out for three months. Ryan Yates and Chris Wood are both out and Dan Ndoye is close, but it’s probably no cigar.

As I said, I’m not worried here.

Forest struggle to score and as much as I don’t rate our defence, our record this season is really very good and I certainly don’t see us conceding many in this game.
Likewise, Forest’s scoring record is poor.

We’re third in the league, justifyably so after our astounding December, while Forest sit in seventeenth, which is not for no reason.

I really like Sean Dyche; he’s a great manager, who will mostly keep teams up. I’m sure he’ll do the same this season at Forest while their owner gives his head a wobble and realises he needs to keep his nose out.
But he isn’t doing it tomorrow.

The big question I’ve seen from all over, is “can Villa get back in the saddle?” or will we struggle and take a while after the loss?

I have none of those doubts and am actually glad in a sense to have got that loss. It’ll have put the player’s feet back on the ground.

Villa to win a tough game 2-1

It’s in the bag (Gulp).

UTV!