Aston Villa face an unenviable statistical milestone when they host Nottingham Forest in the Premier League on Saturday. According to Sports Mole, failing to score at Villa Park would make them the first club across the top four divisions of English football to go without a goal in their opening four league matches in back-to-back campaigns.
Unai Emery’s side began the previous season with the same drought, drawing blanks in each of their first four fixtures. So far in the current top-flight season, matches against Brighton & Hove Albion, Arsenal and Hull City have yielded no goals, leaving the team eighteenth in the standings.
The lack of domestic firepower stands in sharp contrast to events in Europe. Earlier this week, Villa secured a 3-2 win over Club Brugge in the Champions League, providing some momentum heading into the weekend.
History at Villa Park offers encouragement. The report highlights that the hosts have beaten Forest in their last six Premier League encounters on home soil. A seventh successive victory would represent a new club record in the competition for consecutive home wins against a single opponent, surpassing a run achieved against Derby County between 1996 and 2007.
Forest arrive sitting sixteenth, just a single point clear of the drop zone, meaning neither side has registered a league win this term. Their manager, Oliver Glasner, also brings a formidable personal record into the fixture. During his time in charge of Crystal Palace, he avoided defeat against Emery’s team entirely, accumulating three victories and two draws in the Premier League.
