Aston Villa welcome Nottingham Forest to their Bodymoor Heath training ground on Wednesday as they look to bounce back from a defeat to Stoke City.
Meanwhile, Forest play the penultimate game of their pre-season campaign having been held by Crewe Alexandra last time out.
At a time when speculation persists regarding the future of Jack Grealish, Villa boss Dean Smith is keen to ensure that any distractions do not spill over to the pitch.
Smith, who has spent the past week in isolation, witnessed his side ease to victory over Walsall on Wednesday, but the West Midlands outfit were brought back down to earth at the weekend.
Although Villa were still missing a number of key men, a strong starting lineup found themselves 2-0 behind to Stoke before Wesley was sent off soon after his introduction from the substitutes’ bench.
With Villa just two games into their pre-season schedule, Smith will not dwell on succumbing to defeat against the mid-table Championship outfit.
Nevertheless, on his return to club facilities this week, he will demand more from both his established senior players and emerging prospects.
From Forest’s perspective, Chris Hughton will feel that his squad are ready to step up the level of opposition after three successive games against teams from the third and fourth tier.
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Following wins at Port Vale and Northampton Town, Forest went two goals ahead at Crewe before they were pegged back during the closing 15 minutes.
Hughton will feel that conceding twice in four minutes was a consequence of substitutions and a lack of sharpness, but it still represented a setback ahead of the visit to Birmingham.
On the positive side, Brennan Johnson strengthened his chances of earning a spot in the Forest starting lineup this season with strikes either side of half time.
