English Premier
2026-09-12 - Aston Villa vs Nottingham Forest
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
Football: English Premier League
Saturday 12th September 2026 - Kick Off 3pm
Aston Villa
For the second season in a row, Unai Emery's Aston Villa have made a quiet start to the Premier League both in terms of goals being scored and points being earned. The fans will not be panicking about the early results, although there is a difference between this season and last and that is Aston Villa have been going through a transition within the squad and are not as experienced as they were twelve months ago.
Unai Emery will be happy that Aston Villa earned the first points of the Premier League season last Saturday at Hull City, although he will be looking for more improvement in the final third. The 2-3 win at Club Brugge on Match Day 1 of the Champions League could provide a spark as Aston Villa return to Villa Park for just the second time in the 2026/27 campaign.
Aston Villa closed last season with 4 wins from the final 5 games in all competitions, but they begun this one with consecutive defeats to Brighton and Arsenal. The side had won 6 of the last 7 games at Villa Park in all competitions before the narrow 0-1 defeat to the defending Champions at the end of August.
Joao Gomes played in Brugge, but is still serving a domestic suspension and will miss out. New signing Leon Goretzka has been ruled out until after the upcoming international break, while Matty Cash, Johan Manzambi and Brian Madjo are doubts.
Nottingham Forest
There will have been one or two envious glances at the fixture list during this past week from those associated with Nottingham Forest who reached the Europa League Semi Final last season. They had a lead from the First Leg against Aston Villa, but were thumped at this ground and the last hope of playing in European competition in consecutive seasons was extinguished.
Getting back into the mix with the European contenders has to be the ambition for Nottingham Forest and they have appointed Oliver Glasner with that in mind considering his achievements with Crystal Palace. The Tricky Trees are still getting accustomed to what is expected from them by the new manager and Nottingham Forest have yet to taste victory this season, although they do have 2 points on the board.
Nottingham Forest began this season with back to back home defeats to Leeds United, but they have drawn with Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur in the last two outings. However, the goalless draw with Spurs does mean Nottingham Forest have failed to score in 3 of the 4 games played this season. The exception is the 2-2 draw at Anfield and that ended a run of consecutive away defeats in all competitions.
Ibrahim Sangare could be available to make the relatively short journey to the West Midlands, but Nicolo Savona is expected to miss the remainder of this month.
Head to Head
Aston Villa picked up four points from Nottingham Forest in the Premier League and beat them 4-1 on aggregate in the Europa League Semi Final on the way to lifting that trophy last season.
Both games at Villa Park were won by Aston Villa by a 3-1 and 4-0 scoreline.
That makes it 5 straight home wins for Aston Villa against Nottingham Forest since a remarkable 5-5 draw here in November 2018 when both clubs were playing in the Championship.
Prediction
It is clear that both Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest may need some time to get up to full speed in the 2026/27 season, but for different reasons.
Unai Emery is clearly well respected at Villa Park, but Aston Villa's squad has been going through a significant transition this summer. A lot of experienced players have left and those coming into the club are younger and just finding their feet, which has led to a slow start in the Premier League.
For Nottingham Forest's squad, a fifth manager in twelve months will mean getting used to a new voice and Oliver Glasner is working on the balance of the starting eleven. That has led to some early teething troubles, although the board may need to be patient, and back to back draws may have given the team a little momentum.
The 2-3 win at Club Brugge in the Champions League will certainly have lifted Aston Villa and the recent home successes against Nottingham Forest will allow the veteran squad members to help the new faces.
There had already been encouraging signs against Arsenal and Hull City and Aston Villa's squad will be boosted by reminding themselves they do know how to score goals.
Last season Unai Emery's team made a slow start to the Premier League campaign before getting on a roll through the Autumn and into the Winter. He will not want Aston Villa to wait as long as that, but they have looked a bit better balanced and more settled since the tough experience in the first half at Brighton on the opening weekend.
It may be enough to give the home team the edge and Aston Villa may feel one or two goals will be enough to secure three points against this Nottingham Forest team.
Much will depend on the composure Aston Villa can show in the final third, but the win in Brugge can be built upon and the home team are worthy of backing at odds against.
The Statistics :
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The Pick :
Aston Villa 2-1 Nottingham Forest
