After winning 4-2 against Nottingham Forest in 2024 to record his first Premier League victory at Villa Park, Aston Villa manager Unai Emery was happy to be back in familiar surroundings.
Villa improved their record against Forest to tighten their hold on a top-four spot after dropping their previous two games against Newcastle and Manchester United.
They dominated the first half, leading 3-0 thanks to goals from Ollie Watkins and Douglas Luiz, but Forest scared them with goals from Moussa Niakhate and Morgan Gibbs-White either side of halftime.
However, Villa managed to hold off the pursuing group after Leon Bailey scored on the hour to give them breathing room.
“After we lost two games at home after winning games here for a long time, we were very excited and motivated,” Emery stated. “We felt comfortable, strong, connected to our supporters, and confident.”
“But we might have lost some confidence and something tactical when we dropped our first two games at home.
Even though we lost, we were still preparing for the identical games against Manchester United and Newcastle.
“We were focused on obtaining confirmation that we responded well at home. We responded well against Fulham and in Sheffield (United).”
Playing with personality comes first, followed by attempting to exert style control over the game. We performed quite well in the first half, and I was thrilled with my level of comfort and confidence.
“They scored the only goal they gave up in the first half, and even though we had some doubts going into the second half, we responded brilliantly, just like we had in previous games.
“After a period of uncertainty, we responded and resumed our personality-driven gameplay.”
Nuno Espirito Santo, the manager of Nottingham Forest, was left lamenting “a bad performance.”
Despite being overwhelmed in the first forty minutes of the match, Forest managed to tie the score with goals either side of the break.
However, they were unable to complete a comeback because of their subpar beginning.
“We had a terrible start to the game; it was too easy for the opposition to score,” the Portuguese player remarked.
We were not very good. Despite the fact that the goal gave us some optimism after a terrible first half, we came out strong in the second half, leading 3-2 and having a strong chance to tie the game.
Once more, a poor circumstance saw Villa down 6-2 and the game was lost. In summary, a poor show.
We will work on that, analyze it, attempt to figure out why, and see if there’s anything we can do to improve.
“I think we can perform better as a team and as individuals because it is too easy for the opposition to score.”
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