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Nottingham Forest ill take on Brentford in the Championship this afternoon. A win could take them further away from the dangers of relegation, with them currently nine points above the drop zone.

However, Forest haven’t won in either of their last five matches, and suffered a 2-0 loss to Norwich City on Wednesday. Goals from Teemu Pukki and Kieran Dowell inflicted another defeat as stand-in goalkeeper Jordan Smith was forced to make a number of saves to keep them in the game.

It seems as if Chris Hoghton will still be without a few long-term absentees, with Harry Arter, Joe Lolley and Joe Worrall all sidelined. Goalkeeper Brice Samba is still a doubt for this fixture, as is the influential Anthony Knockaert.

Here’s how Football FanCast expects Hughton to line his side up against Brentford, with three changes from the team which started against Norwich City in midweek…

Smith is expected to retain his place in the starting lineup for the second game running, with first choice keeper Samba an injury doubt. He performed well against the league leaders in midweek, making five saves, and will be a crucial member of the squad on Saturday.

There’s one change in defence, as Gaetan Bong comes in at left-back. Tyler Blackett didn’t perform too well against Norwich, and Bong provides the team with a bit more experience in the back four.

The central midfield partnership of James Garner and Ryan Yates is expected to continue, but a poor display from Cafu on Wednesday means that he misses out in the attacking midfield position. Filip Krovinovic is expected to come back in after being rested, and should add more creativity to the team.

Luke Freeman continues on the left and Sammy Ameobi should start on the right. Both players have been struggling for goals and will be looking to find better form against Brentford this weekend.

Lyle Taylor replaces the £27,500-a-week earning Lewis Grabban in attack, and he could be vital if Forest are going to end this bad run. Taylor is their top scorer this season with four goals, and the Reds need to start finding themselves on the scoresheet if they are to come away with three points.

Aston Villa will be looking to bounce back from their draw with Brighton & Hove Albion when they play host to Leicester City in the Premier League at Villa Park on Sunday afternoon.

The Villans will head into the match against Leicester on the back of a 0-0 draw with Brighton away from home in the top flight.

Dean Smith’s side will be determined to make amends when they try to secure all three points from the encounter and maintain their push for a place in the top four.

With that in mind, here is Football FanCast’s prediction for Smith’s starting XI to face Brendan Rodgers’ side.

Ahmed Elmohamady will most likely replace Matty Cash at right-back as one of three changes that could be made this afternoon.

Smith’s No.1 Emi Martinez is fast becoming one of the first names on the team sheet and will keep his place in the starting XI, as he has done for all league games so far this season.

Apart from Elmohamady coming in for the injured Cash, the rest of the back four will be left unchanged. Alongside Matt Target, the in-form Tyrone Mings and Ezri Konsa are undroppable if fit, and they should provide stability at the back to combat Leicester’s lively attacking players.

It’s hard to imagine too many changes to the midfield, either, with Douglas Luiz and John McGinn also both likely to keep their places, although Morgan Sanson could return in place of Ross Barkley to earn his first start of the season.

Going forward, Ollie Watkins keeps on improving, with two goals in his last four starts.

Last year’s Villa Player of the Season Jack Grealish is a mainstay, while the £75k-per-week Trezeguet, valued at €15m (£13m), deserves the chance to stake his claim for a starting spot after impressing in a brief cameo against Brighton, which means Bertrand Traore may be forced to settle for a place on the bench.

AND in other news, Tyrone Mings was superb for Aston Villa vs Brighton…

Speaking exclusively with Football FanCast, ex-West Brom player Carlton Palmer has suggested that his old side could end up regretting their decision to sack former manager Slaven Bilic.

Bilic was relieved of his duties before the start of the new year, with the Baggies managing to take just seven points from their first 13 Premier League matches.

Sam Allardyce, who has never seen relegation from English football’s top division, has since been brought in. And while Palmer is convinced the 66-year-old can still lead the Midlands club to survival, the dismissal of Bilic has left a sour taste in the mouth.

In an exclusive interview with FFC, Palmer said:

“I’m a little bit of a believer. I’ve always believed in fate and I’ll always believe a little bit in karma. I wonder if the fact of how they’ve treated Bilic might come back and haunt them because I thought it was a very unfair dismissal.”

It is not hard to see why the removal of Bilic from the Hawthorns dugout has not gone down well everywhere.

At that stage there was, of course, still a large chunk of the season left, giving the Croatian time to try and turn things around. As well as that, West Brom had shown some signs of being a capable team under Bilic.

In his last game, the Baggies managed to earn a point from a 1-1 draw with Premier League leaders Manchester City. They were also close to claiming all three points against Chelsea at the start of the season, only to be denied by a Tammy Abraham equaliser at the death in a highly entertaining 3-3 draw.

In the end, Aston Villa’s 4-1 defeat to Liverpool in the third round of the FA Cup on Friday night just doesn’t even begin to tell the whole story.

Dean Smith’s side headed into the clash against the Premier League champions without their entire first-team squad, whilst the manager himself was also absent from the dugout.

It meant Mark Delaney took the reins, and was forced to field a side full of players from the academy set-up. And boy did them do him, the fans, and the club proud.

After 60 minutes of the game, Villa were all square with the country’s best team, with Louie Barry’s late first-half equaliser surely sparking pandemonium from those fans watching at home.

But whilst the striker will naturally take a lot of the headlines for his goal, it was arguably centre-back Dominic Revan who stole the show.

The 20-year-old – one of the oldest Villa players on the pitch which is saying something – was a commanding presence at the back, and didn’t look at all ruffled at the prospect of dealing with the likes of Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane.

As per Sofascore, Revan made a whopping 14 clearances on the night, by far the most of any player, whilst he also put his body on the line and blocked three shots too.

Defensively, he was an absolute brick wall, winning seven out of the ten total duels that he contested, including all five on the ground.

Villa’s defensive record in the Premier League this season has been impressive, with just 16 goals conceded.

If Revan’s performance is a sign of what’s to come from him in the future, then Smith could be looking at a centre-back who is ready to stake his claim in the side for the next several years.

Aside from the VAR controversy and the fact they slipped to a 2-0 defeat against Manchester City last time out, Aston Villa boss Dean Smith will also have been left ruing his luck after seeing John McGinn earn a one-match suspension.

The Scotland international picked up his fifth yellow card of the season at the Etihad, and as a result, will miss the clash against Newcastle on Saturday night.

With a deal for Marseille midfielder Morgan Sanson not yet complete and still very much in the works, and Conor Hourihane now available for a move away, it may see Marvelous Nakamba be given a rare chance to impress.

The Zimbabwe international hasn’t played that much this season, with just four appearances in the Premier League totaling a measly 103 minutes.

The £55k-a-week earning ace has also been linked with a potential exit in this January transfer window, at least on loan, with rumours that Galatasaray remain keen on signing him after their initial summer interest.

And with Sanson’s potential arrival, Nakamba is likely to fall even further down the pecking order or even find himself out of Villa Park sooner rather than later.

It’s exactly why the game against the Magpies almost represents last chance saloon for the midfield dynamo, and if he does take his opportunity with both hands, then it may convince Smith to keep him beyond the end of the January window.

Speaking to Football Insider last season, former Villa man Alan Hutton raved about the 27-year-old, saying: “I think Nakamba’s done well. Let’s not kid ourselves, it’s been a difficult season, it was always going to be a difficult season.

“I think Nakamba can come out after this season thinking he’s played his part. I think he is probably underrated as well. There’s so much focus on the likes of Tyrone, Jack, John, even Wesley. It’s been difficult but I think in terms of underrated, Nakamba. He’s went about his business very well, especially when the spotlight has been on other members of the squad.”

With McGinn out, Smith simply has to unleash Nakamba against Newcastle.

Meanwhile, Aston Villa are on the verge of making an unforgivable transfer blunder…

Peter Lawwell can solve Celtic’s woes by hiring former Hoops star Shaun Maloney to replace under-fire head coach Neil Lennon at Parkhead.

What’s the word?

According to The Times, Maloney is among a list of potential candidates being considered for the Parkhead hot seat should Lawwell and majority owner Dermot Desmond call time on Lennon’s tenure and fire the Northern Irishman.

Celtic’s hopes of claiming ten Scottish Premiership titles in succession have been dealt a drastic blow by a dire start to the campaign, with Lennon’s stewardship so far returning 11 fewer points than bitter rivals Rangers ahead of Sunday’s fixtures.

Lennon is determined to prove himself to Desmond and Lawwell over the festive fixtures and earn enough points ahead of facing Steven Gerrard’s Gers on January 2 to save his job, with the Hoops at home to St. Johnstone, Kilmarnock, Ross County and Dundee United while only travelling to basement boys Hamilton.

But should he fail, Lennon may find himself replaced by a man who won three league titles and two cups with Celtic in Maloney, who currently sits beside Roberto Martinez in the dugout of the Belgian national side.

The answer to Celtic’s woes?

While Maloney is yet to take charge of a side in his post-playing days, with spells as the assistant manager in Celtic’s Under 20s and reserves before joining the Belgium set-up, the 37-year-old could be the man to solve the Hoops’ woes.

Maloney played under Martinez at Wigan Athletic between his Celtic exit in 2011 and joining MLS outfit Chicago Fire in 2015, a period which saw the Latics shock English football to beat Manchester City in the FA Cup Final only to be relegated from the Premier League days later.

The 47-time Scotland international left an impression on Martinez, though, as Maloney displayed an “elite” coaching mentality that set him aside from the usual breed of British players he had worked with before.

“There are certain individuals who stand out because they are not normal players brought up in the British structure. Shaun wasn’t built in a system. He was built on an appreciation of space and his technical ability,” Martinez said, via quotes by The Scottish Sun in 2018.

“He caught my eye straight away when I was playing in Britain. He looked different to what was around him. When we started working together at Wigan, I realised he was a deep thinker. He had incredibly high standards and was someone who was ready to mature.

“Moving to Aston Villa opened up his mentality and from that point on you could see he had an elite brain. Shaun has a great mind for detail. He’s very natural on the training ground and has a kind feeling for all the players.”

Lawwell and Desmond may look fondly on Maloney’s ability to bring a fresh approach should they decide to fire Lennon at a time of crisis, while the former Motherwell midfielder’s ability to understand the players will help ease any tensions at Lennoxtown.

“Over the course of his career, he has developed an incredible understanding of how a footballer’s brain goes through different situations,” Martinez added. “He understands what it’s like to go away from your comfort zone and perform in international football. That was always a big enjoyment.

“Shaun’s coaching career will take him wherever he chooses to go and he could also one day be a manager in his own right.”

AND in other news, Celtic would be heading for disaster handing a raw coach his “dream job”.

They may have left it late, but West Ham got the job done on Friday night as they beat Everton 1-0 at Goodison Park.

The Hammers didn’t look at their best all night, but Tomas Soucek – who else? – was in the right place at the right time to fire home from close range and give David Moyes’ side all three points in a hard-fought encounter on Merseyside.

But whilst the West Ham boss will rightly be pleased with the result, one man who he will be extremely disappointed with, is Said Benrahma.

The summer signing from Brentford has yet to start firing at the London Stadium, although that’s largely down to the fact he just hasn’t played enough – in fact, Friday’s clash against Everton was the first time he had completed the full 90 minutes in the Premier League this season.

He hasn’t scored a single goal in the top-flight for his new club, and that run didn’t look like ending against the Toffees.

As per Sofascore, he lost 12 duels over the course of the game, by far the most of any West Ham player. He also lost possession 19 times (another team-high), and that led to The Guardian’s Jacob Steinberg to slam that he “needs to toughen up” and that he gets “knocked off the ball too easily”.

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When he did have the ball, he hardly created anything. He completed just one of his four attempted dribbles, had no shots on goal whatsoever, provided no accurate crosses, and delivered just one key pass.

Moyes may have played him in a number ten role instead of out wide, but the Hammers boss will rightly feel the Algeria international should have delivered a lot more than he actually did.

Here was his big chance to impress, and he completely blew it.

Three Standard Liege players have tested positive for Covid following their clash against Glasgow Rangers in midweek, it has been confirmed.

Liege hit with health blow

The ‘Gers travelled to Liege for their Europa League clash on Thursday and came away with a well-deserved 2-0 victory. However, the bad news is that three players have since tested positive for the virus.

Maxime Lestienne, Eden Shamir and Abdoul Fessal Tapsoba have been named as the unlucky trio, and the former even played against Steven Gerrard’s side on Thursday. As such, the Ibrox outfit face a nervous wait to find out whether any of their own players have been affected.

Nervous wait for Gerrard

Liege were in action against Club Brugge in the Belgian top flight last weekend and their opponents were also damaged by Covid issues within their squad. It seems that those problems have now been transferred to Liege, and it would not be unthinkable for the 54-time Scottish champions to be affected.

In the long-term this may not be too much of a danger for the players. After all, they are incredibly fit athletes who are not part of the most vulnerable group. However, it does mean that anyone who tests positive would be unavailable for two weeks as they would be forced to quarantine away from the rest of their teammates.

This is why Gerrard and Ross Wilson have put so much effort into building a squad – it is important to have alternative options when players aren’t available. Hopefully, though, this is just a scare rather than something which would become a serious problem at Ibrox.

In other news, this Rangers star has jumped above Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Zlatan Ibrahimovic in a UEFA ranking. Let us know what you think in the comments below!

When Tim Sherwood brought Jordan Veretout to Aston Villa back in the summer of 2015, he made it very clear just how big of a coup it had been for the club.

He said: “He has played over 140 games in Ligue 1 and is a really exciting young player. I know Veretout is very highly rated over in France, so we are delighted to get this deal over the line.”

Fast forward a year later, and things had turned upside down at Villa Park, with the club going through a tumultuous period of managerial changes and relegation from the Premier League to boot.

In the end, Veretout was sent out on loan, before sealing a more permanent move away from the club when he joined Serie A side Fiorentina for around £6.25m.

And since then, he has been nothing short of incredible, enjoying a remarkable rise that is now seeing him shine for one of Italian football’s biggest clubs, AS Roma.

This season has seen the £25.2m-rated central midfielder add a bit of a goal-scoring touch to his game, bagging four goals and providing another assist in just eight league games, including netting a brace in a 2-2 draw with Juventus.

The fact is however, that there were those within the inner circle at Villa who valued him very highly indeed. During his lone playing season at the club, caretaker manager Kevin McDonald hailed him, saying: “Jordan is a wonderful passer of the ball. He will get better. And he is looking to impose himself in training games. Now he has to do that over a period of time. If he does that, he will be a very, very good player.

“Glenn Hoddle didn’t have to run up and down the pitch. But he was the most wonderful passer this country had in a long, long time. It’s not about being a holding midfielder or an attacking midfielder – Jordan needs to be a midfielder who gets on the ball more than anybody else in the team.”

Sadly, not everyone seemed to echo those sentiments. A case of niggling injuries didn’t help his cause one bit, but he didn’t even take to the pitch for any of Villa’s last seven Premier League games of the 2015/2016 season, including not even making the match-day squad in four of them.

But the way he is shining now, there must surely be a tinge of regret that they couldn’t keep hold of Veretout or even get to see the best of him at Villa Park.

If Dean Smith was watching Norway’s clash against Serbia on Thursday night, then he would have left with some serious doubts about a rumoured transfer target for Aston Villa.

Reports in recent weeks have claimed that Bournemouth striker Josh King remains of interest to the Midlands club, and with Premier League clubs able to do deals with those in the EFL until the deadline of October 16, a transfer for the 28-year-old is a big possibility.

Whilst the Cherries ace has plenty of Premier League experience and could absolutely offer Ollie Watkins some competition up front, Smith may have been developing second thoughts after Thursday.

One performance certainly doesn’t make a bad player – or good for that instance – but in a crunch game for his country, with hopes of qualification for next summer’s European Championship on the line, he completely fluffed his lines.

King was brought on mid-way through the second-half of the tie, and with the game going all the way to extra-time, he had plenty of minutes to really inspire his side to victory.

Instead, he was more of a hindrance for Norway, delivering the kind of anonymous display that ended up seeing Serbia nick a 2-1 win by the end of the match.

As per SofaScore, he made just 11 successful passes after coming on, registering only 28 touches in his time on the pitch – to put that into context, Norway goalkeeper Rune Jarstein managed 46 touches.

King had just one shot on goal, missed his target with both of his attempted crosses, and lost possession 12 times too.

With just days left before the transfer deadline, the Bournemouth striker had the perfect chance to really showcase his talents. Instead, he failed his Villa audition miserably, and his disappearance in a crucial game for his country, may have sent Smith running.

In other news, Villa may have a hidden gem on their hands in this academy starlet…