How Aston Villa were made to sweat for a seventh successive victory. At least the manner in which Nottingham Forest swarmed their goal as they pushed for a second-half equaliser may prove a decent dress rehearsal for Wednesday’s Champions League quarter-final first leg at Paris Saint-Germain.
Forest pulled a goal back through the half-time substitute Jota Silva and then dialled up the pressure but the visitors, determined to emulate Villa by gatecrashing Europe’s elite, were beaten by early goals from Morgan Rogers and Donyell Malen. For Villa, who cut the gap to third-placed Forest to six points, attention will quickly turn to analysing the Ligue 1 champions.
Simon Hooper officiated a 5-5 Championship draw between these teams in November 2018, when Tammy Abraham scored four and John McGinn and Matty Cash were on opposing sides, and while this time the fixture did not throw up six goals like last season, this was another watchable feast.
Murillo smacked the crossbar from 30 yards in stoppage time. Then there was a slice of argy-bargy between Emiliano Martínez and Jota. Forest peppered Villa in the second half, with Neco Williams and Elliot Anderson both blasting inches wide, and Nuno Espírito Santo will wonder how his side, who registered 19 shots but only three on target, left empty-handed.
There were no glaring misses but Forest felt the absence of Taiwo Awoniyi and Chris Wood, because of hamstring and hip problems respectively. Anthony Elanga, who predominantly operated centrally, was withdrawn at half-time with an unspecified injury, adding to Nuno’s problems, with Ola Aina also sidelined because of a calf issue. “For me, football is [about] strikers,” Nuno said. “We miss Chris and we miss [Taiwo] because the way we play, the way we do things, we need a reference player. We tried to find solutions.”
Emery has almost the opposite problem and made eight changes from a resounding victory at Brighton on Wednesday. Martínez, Rogers and Youri Tielemans were the trio who retained their starting spots. Approaching the half-hour, a gaggle of Villa players – Pau Torres, Ezri Konsa, Jacob Ramsey and Boubacar Kamara – gathered close to the touchline. A few minutes later McGinn and Marcus Rashford joined them.
This was Villa’s strength in depth hiding in plain sight. On the day those aforementioned players represented plan B, though plan A went so swimmingly that Emery did not need to worry about changes until the 62nd minute, when Rashford, Ramsey and Kamara entered, tasked with trying to disrupt Forest’s groove. Villa were tense in possession, vulnerable out of it.
It was a stark contrast to the first half, particularly the opening 15 minutes, at which point Villa led 2-0. Forest were floored by Villa’s boundless energy. Ian Maatsen, who did not feature in Villa’s previous two matches, enjoyed stretching his legs and registered Villa’s first shot after latching on to a Rogers back-heel. Then Marco Asensio prodded wide.
Villa’s first goal spoke to the confidence flowing through a team still fighting on three fronts. Tielemans floated a ball over Morato and Rogers, surely one of the stars of the season, did the rest. He took the ball down with the outside of his right boot and then whistled a left-foot finish through the legs of Matz Sels.
Elanga and the returning Callum Hudson-Odoi went close in quick succession but Nuno recognised something had to change at the interval. Jota arrived in place of Elanga and Forest put their foot to the floor. From there, Villa struggled to come up for air.
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Williams saw a wayward shot fly off-target and then Hudson-Odoi wrapped his right foot around the ball but his strike curled wide. Villa were drowning under pressure and Jota pulled a goal back approaching the hour. Williams pushed the ball inside to Anderson, who recorded a swing and a miss, but Jota swivelled and sent a shot through the legs of Konsa, another half-time arrival.
Forest went for the jugular. Anderson put his hands on his head in disbelief after dispatching another effort wide. Up the other end Rogers missed a chance to kill the game after seizing on a mistimed jump by Murillo. Forest kept coming. Morgan Gibbs-White volleyed wide and Williams tried his luck from the opposite wing. Murillo cracked the frame of the goal. Then, eventually, the final whistle and Emery’s mind switched to PSG. “We are motivated, excited, but they are favourites,” he said.
