Preview: Aston Villa vs Nottingham Forest - prediction, team news, lineups

Two Premier League teams still searching for their first win of the new season meet at Villa Park on Saturday afternoon, as Aston Villa play host to Nottingham Forest.

This fixture is a repeat of last season’s Europa League semi-final which Villa won 4-1 on aggregate after netting all four of their goals in a dominant second-leg display on their own turf.

Match preview

Aston Villa are yet to win or score in the Premier League so far this season, with back-to-back defeats to Brighton (4-0) and champions Arsenal (1-0) followed by a goalless stalemate with high-flying Hull City last weekend.

Unai Emery’s men are now seeking to avoid becoming the first team in England’s top-four divisions to not score in any of their opening four matches of a league campaign in successive seasons, after doing so in 2025-26.

The Midlands club have struggled to pose an attacking threat on the domestic front, as they rank 19th for expected goals (2.6), 18th for touches in the opposition’s box (45) and 16th for xG per shot (0.1) in the Premier League after the first three games.

However, Villa rediscovered their clinical touch and ended their winless start to the campaign on Tuesday, as they secured a 3-2 victory away against Club Brugge in the Champions League, with Emery labelling the morale-boosting triumph as “one very important step forward”.

Villa will back themselves to prevail once again on Saturday, as they have won each of their last six Premier League home encounters with Nottingham Forest. The only team they have beaten in seven straight home matches in the top tier are Forest’s rivals Derby County from 1996 to 2007.

Nottingham Forest have failed to win their opening three games of a Premier League campaign for the very first time, while Oliver Glasner is yet to taste victory as the club’s new manager, with two draws and two losses posted across four games in all competitions.

Back-to-back home defeats to Leeds United in both the league and EFL Cup were followed by a respectable 2-2 draw with Liverpool at Anfield and a scrappy, goalless stalemate with Tottenham Hotspur at the City Ground last weekend.

Glasner, who is now winless in his last 10 Premier League games as a manager (D5 L5), said that his Forest side "lost two points" against Spurs as the frustrated Austrian coach felt that Neco Williams's second-half disallowed goal should have stood.

Only Bournemouth (12), Brentford (11) and Leeds (11) have drawn more Premier League matches in 2026 than Forest (10), while Andoni Iraola (33) is the only manager to have overseen more draws than Glasner since arriving in the division in February 2024 (31).

A return to winning ways is far from a guarantee for the Tricky Trees on Saturday, as they have won just three, drawn six and lost nine of their previous 18 Premier League meetings with Aston Villa. In fact, they have only been beaten more times in the division by Arsenal, Everton, Man United and Newcastle (all 11).

Forest can at least take some comfort from Glasner’s strong personal record against Emery; the former Crystal Palace boss never lost to Emery’s Villa during his time at Selhurst Park, collecting 11 points from a possible 15 available (W3 D2).

Aston Villa Premier League form:

Aston Villa form (all competitions):

Nottingham Forest Premier League form:

Nottingham Forest form (all competitions):

Team News

Aston Villa will be without injured quartet Leon Goretzka, Johan Manzambi, Amadou Onana (all knee) and Brian Madjo (ankle), while Joao Gomes will serve the third and final match of his three-game suspension.

Matty Cash missed the midweek Champions League win with muscle fatigue and has emerged as a doubt. New signing Aaron Wan-Bissaka could therefore retain his place at right-back.

Fellow new recruit Taylor Harwood-Bellis was left out of Villa’s UCL squad, but he is available for selection this weekend and is set to rival Victor Lindelof for a start at centre-back.

Ibrahim Mbaye - a £47m signing from PSG - will be pushing to make his full debut on either flank, but Emery may prefer to stick with teenage starlet George Hemmings and John McGinn in wide positions, while Nicolas Jackson leads the line and looks to score in back-to-back games.

As for Nottingham Forest, Nicolo Savona remains sidelined with a knee injury, while Ibrahim Sangare will have a calf issue assessed ahead of kickoff after missing the draw with Spurs.

Only Chelsea’s Morgan Rogers (nine) has created more chances from open play in the Premier League this season than James McAtee (eight), who will hope to fend off competition from Sangare - if fit - and retain his starting spot in centre-midfield alongside Xaver Schlager.

Glasner will be tempted to hand Daniel Munoz his full debut at right wing-back at the expense of Ola Aina, while Callum Hudson-Odoi, Igor Jesus and Chris Wood will all be looking to force their way back into a Forest attack that has failed to score in three of their first four games this term.

Aston Villa possible starting lineup:

Suzuki; Wan-Bissaka, Lindelof, Torres, Maatsen; Kamara, Barkley; McGinn, Buendia, Hemmings; Jackson

Nottingham Forest possible starting lineup:

Sels; Milenkovic, Cunha, Murillo; Munoz, Schlager, McAtee, Williams; Gibbs-White, Jesus; Delap

We say: Aston Villa 2-1 Nottingham Forest

Both teams will be desperate to claim their first three points of the campaign, but an Aston Villa side buoyed by their morale-boosting midweek triumph boast the psychological advantage, given their recent head-to-head home record.

While Forest are more than capable of executing a disciplined game plan under Glasner, their distinct lack of a clinical cutting edge could prove costly once again, as we are backing the hosts to prevail in a tight contest.

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