Nottingham Forest vs Aston Villa Preview

Bottom-placed Nottingham Forest will look to halt their poor run of form when they welcome Aston Villa to the City Ground on Monday night.

The hosts have lost their last five league games while conceding 18 goals across those five games.

The last of those losses came in a 4-0 loss to fellow struggling side Leicester City and guaranteed that Steve Cooper’s side come into this round of games rooted at the bottom of the table.

After the loss, there were widespread rumours that Cooper will be relieved of his duties at the City ground with former Everton, Liverpool and Newcastle boss Rafa Benitez the favourite to be hired in his stead.

But rather than being fired, much to the surprise of everyone, Nottingham Forest have handed Cooper a new contract that runs until 2025. With such a level of support and the 22 players bought by the club in the summer, Cooper knows that he must deliver results.

He and his men will be desperate for results to turn around and will hope that he can begin doing so in this game on Monday.

Meanwhile, Aston Villa have turned around an early season wobble and come into this game without a loss in their last three games.

They started that run with a remarkable 1-1 draw with Manchester City before earning a 1-0 win over Southampton just before the international break.

Last of all, they held Leeds United to a goalless draw at Elland Road in their last outing, making it two games without conceding a goal. That upturn in form defencively will be a welcome development for Steven Gerrard whose side struggled to keep clean sheets before now.

Ahead of this game, Gerrard will be hoping his side can also turn things around away from home given that they have now failed to win five straight PL away games (D1, L4), despite scoring the opening goal twice during that run.

But given that they are unbeaten in their last four games against Forest (W3, D1), they will fancy their chances of ending that poor away form when they travel to the City Ground on Monday night.

Other fixtures taking place this week in the Premier League Fixtures:

Premier League Table