Marc: If we can get an away win tonight, we have a pretty decent run of fixtures up until the World Cup after Chelsea on Sunday. I'm optimistic! Let's see if I feel the same at 10pm.

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And we are under way at a noisy City Ground.

Nottingham Forest have lost six of their eight Premier League matches this season (won one, drew one) including their last five in a row while conceding 18 goals.

Forest last lost six in a row in the league in October 2020, and last did so in the top-flight in September 1992 under Brian Clough.

Former Aston Villa manager Dean Smith on BBC Radio 5 Live: "It was a great decision to give him a new contract. The City Ground is a rocking ground, he has the fans on board. He is the reason for that.

"So he needed that backing, a great decision and maybe it was the owners making a point. Even if they did go down who better to take them back up?"

Chris Sutton
Former Blackburn striker on BBC Radio 5 Live

The new contract was very strange. For the people not in the know I thought Steve Cooper was a goner but it is really refreshing. It doesn’t take much to get sack with that owner.

They understand how difficult his job is with so many new players and are rewarding him. Lose tonight and he will probably get the sack….

Former Nottingham Forest defender Brian Laws says the club's fans played their part in Steve Cooper's new contract

He told BBC Radio Nottingham: "It’s brilliant news. He deserves some acknowledgement for what he has achieved so far at this football club.

"The chairman is giving him the support he requires in these difficult times. It also will stop any kind of rumours with each game that goes by about whether he’s going to lose his job.

"That will, of course, settle the players down as well and allow them to play the football. People from Nottingham know what a tremendous job he has done. He has achieved something that 12 months ago was impossible.

"To put a new squad together this season was an impossible task for any manager. If Pep Guardiola came into this football club with 23 new players, he’s have the same issues and problems.

"This will just about calm things down and allow Cooper to get the job done - because I think he will."

He added: "The power of the fans is quite evident. The vocal support that Steve got during the game [against Leicester] was remarkable. That also underlines the connection he has with the supporters."

It has been a tough start to Nottingham Forest's first top-flight season since 1999, but can they keep it tight against an Aston Villa side lacking goals themselves?

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Chris Sutton takes on Hibernian and Scotland defender Ryan Porteous to pick his winners and losers for the weekend's Premier League games.

Sutton's prediction: 0-1

Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cooper has kept his job for now, but the noises coming out of the City Ground cannot be making him feel too optimistic about his future.

Cooper said after his side's defeat at Leicester that "where we've fallen short is that we're not a team" which is a worry. I always thought it was going to be tremendously difficult to go out and build a new team that could compete in the Premier League.

It's hard to gauge where Aston Villa are at, after seeing them unable to break down a Leeds side that played with 10 men for almost the entire second half.

There are a few disgruntled Villa fans who think their side haven't made the progress they would have liked under Gerrard. Philippe Coutinho has been a let-down this season, and overall they are quite workmanlike, even when they get a positive result.

I fancy Villa here, though. I think Forest's confidence is at a low ebb and they are far too open at the back to hold out for 90 minutes - I'm going with Coutinho to come good, and get the winner. He probably won't start now.

Ryan's prediction: 0-1

Villa are hard to beat at the moment, so I am going to give the points to my good mate John McGinn. It might not be pretty, but they will edge it.

Find out how Chris and Al got on predicting Saturday and Sunday's matches

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Liverpool forward Luis Diaz is expected to be sidelined until December after suffering a knee injury in Sunday's 3-2 Premier League defeat at Arsenal.

The Colombia international, 25, had a scan on Monday and does not require surgery but will not play for the Reds again until after the World Cup.

The Reds are due to play 10 matches before England's elite clubs break for the tournament on 13 November.

Liverpool return to action with a trip to Aston Villa on 26 December.

Diaz, who has been one of Liverpool's better performers in a disappointing start to the campaign, left Emirates Stadium on crutches wearing a knee brace having limped off shortly before the break after Arsenal midfielder Thomas Partey landed on his knee.

Trent Alexander-Arnold was also withdrawn at half-time after sustaining an ankle problem with manager Jurgen Klopp saying that it did not "look good for both".

Speaking of Fantasy Football, there has been some news in the last hour from Liverpool that will force me (and thousands of others) into a change....

Sulaimon Adelekan: I am in dire need of two goals from Watkins tonight for the sake of FPL points and maybe a push to be on the plane to Qatar with England. Who knows?

Watkins played and scored for England as recently as March (in a 3-0 friendly win over Ivory Coast), but has only got one Premier League goal so far this season.

Aston Villa right-back Matty Cash says he is really looking forward to returning to the City Ground after leaving Nottingham Forest in 2020.

The Poland international made 141 appearances for Forest between 2015-2020, before moving to Villa for £16m in September 2020.

The 25-year-old, who has just come back from injury, told the Villa website: , external"Since I left I have really looked forward to the day I am going back. I was there for six to seven years and done a lot for the club as well as the club doing a lot for me. It is a mutual thing.

"I have a really good relationship there with the fans but obviously they have signed a lot of players, so a lot of players have changed. Although the people behind the scenes are the same but I am going there for one reason and that is to win. It is nice to go and see old faces.

"I have played many times at the City Ground so I know what the fans are like and they can change it in seconds. I know there league position isn't great but the City Ground is always the 12th man.

"They have got good players so we are not looking at the league position but giving them respect. It should be a good game."

Mark Thompson: Hoping for a good game and specifically a winner, if only to have an entire weekend of matches with zero draws.

Steven Gerrard rued "a missed opportunity" last time out at Leeds but believes his Aston Villa side are showing signs of pushing up the table.

"We're a goal away from being around the mid-table places," he said. "If we had scored against Leeds, we would be in a much healthier position.

"I felt as if the weekend was a missed opportunity to take maximum points - not just on the back of them going down to 10 men, but on the back of the opportunities we created."

Five points from three games has helped Villa stabilise but Gerrard accepts they remain a long way off where he wants them to be.

"Recent performances have given us a platform but there's no-one on the inside at Villa who thinks we're there," he said. "We know we've got to keep pushing in every way, shape and form.

"Once we get players where we need them, we're a good team and we'll be where we want to be.

"We've got another opportunity against Nottingham Forest to go away and try to build on our recent performances and try to get an away win."

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It's a big evening for Emiliano Buendia as he gets a start and a chance to spark the Aston Villa front line into action after they have only scored six times in the league all season and failed to break down Leeds last time out, despite the Yorkshire side only having 10 players for 42 minutes and injury time.

Peter Bavin: A must win game for Forest at home, but I fear our defence won't cope with the pace of Villa up front. Both teams to score 2-1 either way. Come on You Reds!

Steve Cooper worked at Liverpool's academy at the same time Steven Gerrard was at the club and the ex-England midfielder was full of praise for what Cooper has done throughout his career.

Gerrard told Villa’s official website: “He was really highly thought of (at Liverpool). When I was a player at Liverpool, people spoke really well about him on the grass, how he coached. He’s a great guy, with a really infectious personality.

“He’s had an incredible career so far. The job he’s done at Forest is out of this world, in my opinion - to take over when they were bottom of the Championship and get them promoted into the Premier League after so long. I hope people haven't got short memories, because I certainly haven’t - because that’s one of the best jobs in recent years, in any league, anywhere in the world. He needs to be praised for that.

“I don’t know him extremely well. I know him well enough to pick the phone up and have a conversation with him, but we’ve had very little time together. Even though we worked at the same club, we were in two different buildings.

“But the reputation is certainly there - it always has been. And he’s certainly gone and backed that up when he’s gone into the big-time, in terms of the Premier League.”

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Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cooper is pleased to have signed a new contract as it means he can get on with the job of addressing his side's perilous situation at the bottom of the Premier League table.

Cooper's job had come into question after five consecutive defeats but, after committing his future to the City Ground until 2025, he says he is "hungrier than ever" to bring success to Forest.

"Obviously it's good that there's clarity to my contract situation," he said. "It puts an end to those questions.

"Everyone who knows me knows how much I'm loving my time at Forest and how important it is to me. My real focus is about winning a football match.

"Nothing really changes in terms of my work and making sure every day we try and get to our best to be ready to try and win.

"The supporters deserve better and we need to do better. I'm more than happy to give everything I've got to try and succeed."

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What a round of matches it has been in the Premier League. Press the play button at the top of this page right now to listen to the Monday Night Club on BBC Radio 5 Live as they talk through the main headlines and build-up to tonight's game.

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