Aston Villa look to make a winning return to Premier League affairs, when travelling to The City Ground to take on Nottingham Forest on Sunday afternoon (ko 2pm).
Unai Emery’s men triumphed 3-1 away to Bologna in the first leg of their UEFA Europa League Quarter-Final in midweek, securing a third successive victory in their first outing after the March international break.
The fourth-place Villans now take on Forest with the fresh knowledge that a top-five finish in the table will be enough to secure a spot in next season’s Champions League. They enter the game six points clear of sixth-place Chelsea, with seven games remaining.
Emi Buendía
At the other end of the table, Vítor Pereira’s side face the challenge of staying in the Premier League next season, entering the encounter two points clear of the drop zone.
They are, however, like Villa, still in the Europa League, and will take a 1-1 draw with Liga Portugal leaders Porto into the second leg of their Quarter-Final clash next week, after travelling to Estádio do Dragão on Thursday.
Villa have won 14 of their 23 Premier League games in which John McGinn has started this season (61%), the highest ratio of any player to start 20+ league games for the club this season. When he hasn’t started, however, their win rate drops to 25% (2/8) in 2025/26.
Only Igor Thiago (1,608) has applied more high-intensity pressures in the Premier League this season than Nottingham Forest’s Elliot Anderson (1,527). Indeed, 74.1% of Anderson’s pressures this season have been high-intensity, the second highest rate of any player to record 1,500+ pressures, behind only Diego Gómez (77.3%).
John McGinn
In 2026, only Bruno Fernandes (12), João Pedro (10), and Igor Thiago (8) have more Premier League goal involvements than Morgan Gibbs-White (7 – 6 goals, 1 assist). However, just one of Gibbs-White’s goal involvements in the league this calendar year have come at The City Ground, scoring against Crystal Palace in February.
Villa have scored 14 Premier League goals from outside the box this season, more than any other side, while only in 2007/08 (16) have they netted more in the competition. Conversely, only Tottenham Hotspur have conceded more times from outside the box in the division this season (11) than Nottingham Forest (9).
Forest have scored 13 goals from 228 shots at The City Ground in the Premier League this season, a conversion rate of 5.7%. It’s the lowest home conversion rate by any side in a Premier League campaign since Fulham in 2020/21 (3.9%).
Villa have lost both of their last two away games in the Premier League, last losing more in a row between November and December 2024 (5), a run which included a 2-1 loss to Nottingham Forest.
Forest are winless in seven home league games (D4 L3), failing to score in their last three; the Tricky Trees last went longer without a home league goal in February 2018 in the Championship (5 games), and have only once done so in the top-flight (4 in April 1911).
West Ham United 2-3 Aston Villa
Villa have lost three of their 17 Premier League games against Nottingham Forest (W9 D5). Among sides they’ve faced 15+ times in the competition, only against Coventry (16.7%) do they have a lower loss rate than against Forest (17.6%).
Villa are looking to complete the league double over Nottingham Forest for the first time since 2017/18, and for the first time in the Premier League since 1992/93.
Forest have won their last two home league games against Aston Villa, last winning three in a row against them between 1977 and 1979.
The Villans will be looking to complete a league double over Forest, after a 3-1 victory in January, the last time these two sides met.
Sean Dyche brought his side to Villa Park for both teams’ opening game of the calendar year, and after being stifled for much of the opening period, the hosts broke the deadlock on the stroke of half-time through an Ollie Watkins thunderbolt from outside the area.
John McGinn’s strike four minutes into the second half doubled Villa’s advantage, before Morgan Gibbs-White cut the deficit back to one goal 12 minutes later.
But Villa skipper McGinn pounced on a defensive mishap 17 minutes from time to notch his second of the game and restore his side’s two-goal advantage, as the Villans returned to winning ways and secured their 12th victory in 13 outings.
Alysson
Villa remain without Jadon Sancho who is nursing a shoulder injury, alongside long-term absentee Boubacar Kamara.
Unai Emery did confirm in his pre-match press conference, however, that January signing Alysson is back in training with his teammates after a spell on the sidelines, while Ross Barkley is eligible again having been left out of Villa’s Europa League squad.
Forest, meanwhile, will be boosted by the return of Elliot Anderson, who missed the game in Porto through suspension. Vítor Pereira also confirmed Chris Wood came through his first appearance in six months fine on Thursday, after returning from injury in Portugal.
Nicolò Savona, Willy Boly, Jair Cunha and John Victor – who picked up an injury in the reverse fixture at Villa Park – remain sidelined with respective injuries for Sunday’s hosts.
"Each team, they are fighting for each point strongly, and needing it, because we need to be in the top position, and they will need points to try to avoid the relegation position."
"In our mind is to prepare, to compete, to get points because we need a good result. To have a good result is important, we need to be with fresh legs and fresh minds to face a strong team like Aston Villa."