Nottingham Forest v Aston Villa Betting Preview – Championship 13th January 5.30pm
Forest enjoyed a huge home success in beating FA Cup holders Arsenal on the weekend in the third round of this season’s competition. For a side that has been out of form on home soil in the Championship, that was quite the upset. Can they get going on home soil in the league? Aston Villa are on a promotion charge again after having superbly destroyed challengers Bristol City last time out in the league. Can they follow that up with their third straight league win?
Nottingham Forest v Aston Villa Betting Tips
It was a tremendous weekend for Nottingham Forest as they ditched FA Cup holders Arsenal out of the competition in Third Round action. The question is, can they deliver that kind of positive in the league at the City Ground? They are not in home form with just a W1 L3 return in their last four Championship fixtures at the City Ground and have lost their last two there without having found the back of the net. Actually, they have failed to score in each of their last three home loses. Overall this season Forest are W7 D0 L6 on home soil in the Championship and that is keeping them in mid-table because their away form has been really poor. 66% of Forest’s point this term have been earned at home. Forest have scored seventeen and have conceded seventeen goals on home soil this season. Both teams to score at Betfair for a quote of 5/6 odds* (Betting Odds taken January 8th at 10.45pm) may well have some appeal, therefore. They do have a new manager in place with former Middlesbrough boss Aitor Karanka taking over.
Nottingham Forest are ten points away from the play-off places in the Championship heading into this one so they have to make up some ground. They are winless in their last five league games (D2L3) home and away and have collected just the one victory in their last eight league outings. In the Betfair correct score marek the shortest priced option is the 1-1 draw at 5/1* (Betting Odds taken January 8th at 10.48pm) and top scorer for Forest this season is Kieran Dowell but the top scorer for them on home soil is Barrie McKay with five. They are 4/1 and 9/2 respectively in the anytime goalscorer market for this one. There was a 2-1 success for Forest over Villa in last season’s corresponding league encounter, but they went down by that very scoreline at Villa Park earlier in the season. In the last five league contests, there have been two 2-1 home wins, two 2-2 draws and a 2-0 home win with Villa W2 D2 L1 up in that sequence of games.
Aston Villa seem to be back on track after their slump in form through most of December. They have recorded back to back wins over Middlesbrough and Bristol City heading into this one and those were tough games. But still, Villa beat Boro 1-0 and then crushed Bristol City 5-0 to return to form with a bang. Out on the road, this season in the Championship, Villa are W5 D3 L5 and their recent win at Middlesbrough snapped a three-match winless streak that they were on away from Villa Park. Their defence should be able to keep them well in this contest and Villa have taken a clean sheet in 38% of their league away games so far. The half time draw at Betfair is probably going to be a decent proposition as the Villains have been level at the break in seven of their thirteen away games this term. Scott Hogan and Albert Adomah are the leading options in the anytime goalscorer market for the Saturday evening clash
Nottingham Forest v Aston Villa Betting Odds*
Aston Villa 6/4, Nottingham Forest 2/1, Draw 11/5* (Betting Odds taken January 8th at 10.45pm)
Nottingham Forest v Aston Villa Predictions
Aston Villa are still the better of the two sides and the away side can be comfortably backed to at least avoid defeat at the City Ground. They know how to navigate tough away games like this and there just hasn’t been the home form from Forest to confidently back them. So ride the away win for the Villains.
