Two potential Europa League winners meet in the top flight this weekend as Aston Villa make the short trip to face Nottingham Forest at the City Ground. BBC Sport explores some of the key themes.
Both sides have been straddling European endeavours with domestic duties this season and both will likely suffer from fatigue having each played tricky ties on the continent on Thursday.
Forest finding form
Europe has provided a welcome distraction from the Premier League for Nottingham Forest for most of this campaign but, under Vitor Pereira, they seem to be finding form at the perfect time.
Forest sit three points above the relegation places with seven games remaining but they have taken four points from the past two league games, including a huge 3-0 victory at relegation rivals Spurs in their last outing.
A creditable draw in Porto on Thursday night with a much-changed side extended their unbeaten run in all competitions to four matches and Pereira seems to be striking the necessary balance between European progression and Premier League survival.
A total of 36 points has been enough to guarantee survival in each of the past nine Premier League seasons and if that trend continues in 2025-26, the Tricky Trees require only four more points from their seven remaining matches.
One thing Pereira is yet to address is Forest's poor home run – they are winless in seven league outings in front of their own fans (D4, L3) and they have failed to score in each of their past three matches at the City Ground. Their last home league win was in 2025, 119 days ago versus Spurs.
Villa's recent struggles at Forest
Aston Villa resume their league campaign against a side they have historically enjoyed the upper hand against in the Premier League era.
The Villans have lost only three of their 17 Premier League meetings with Forest (W9, D5), however, two of those defeats have come at the City Ground in recent seasons and they have not won a top-flight match there since January 1995.
Villa will draw confidence from their 3-1 victory at Bologna in midweek. It was their third win on the bounce in all competitions and the club's eighth in succession in the Europa League this season, with Unai Emery's side putting one foot firmly in the semi-finals – where they could potentially meet Forest again at the end of April.
Ollie Watkins has seemingly responded to his recent England snub by finding his shooting boots and he has now contributed four goals in four starts across all competitions. Incidentally, his two goals on Thursday in northern Italy were his eighth and ninth Villa goals in a major European competition, equalling the club record first set by Peter Withe and matched by John McGinn.
