Aston Villa vs Nottingham Forest Betting Preview

The Midlands is a part of England that often gets overlooked when it comes to a lot of major topics in society but within the realm of the beautiful game, also known as football, we’d say that everyone understands just how relevant it is – or, at least, the smart fans do.

If you’re talking about the biggest club in the West, you’re probably talking about Aston Villa. If you’re talking about the biggest club in the East, you’re probably talking about Nottingham Forest. While that would mean a derby in a lot of other instances, in this case, it just means that we’re going to see a game between two clubs that are no longer sleeping giants.

Oh, and there’s an excellent chance that this will also end up being the match-up we see in the FA Cup final.

Villa are still on the hunt for a place in the top four for the second successive season, whereas Forest are aiming to break back into the Champions League for the first time in what feels like forever. Between them they have three European Cup triumphs and when you look at how far they’ve come in the last couple of years, it’s easy to see why there’s so much intrigue surrounding them.

So whether you’re looking for football odds or you’re just looking for a breakdown, we’re here to take a closer look at one of this weekend’s showpiece games in the Premier League.

In terms of quality, these two sides have a whole lot of it – but they utilise it in different ways. Villa focus more on methodically breaking down teams, which is one of the things that Unai Emery has implemented brilliantly since arriving at the club.

They make you second guess every single thing you’re doing on a football pitch and that’s hard to do at the elite level. They’re tough to play against, and this kind of game will really come down to where their priorities are given their Champions League and FA Cup commitments.

Then you’ve got Nottingham Forest. Nuno Espirito Santo had a lot of success with Wolverhampton Wanderers but he was never really given the financial backing he needed to go that one step further. With Forest, he has it, and it’s clear to see that’s the case.

They go forward into the final third with the kind of confidence and swagger that defies all logic when you consider that they were nearly relegated last season. They don’t fear anyone in this league and when they arrive at Villa Park, we expect to see them make that stance very clear.

In terms of our prediction, we think they’re both going to leave this second city encounter with a point. It’ll probably be a case of Villa taking the lead with Forest having to chase the game, but if you’ve seen them play in the past, you’ll know that they certainly aren’t afraid of doing that.

Get ready, because this one should be an absolute banger.

Official prediction: Aston Villa 2-2 Nottingham Forest