Aston Villa's Struggles Continue After Defeat to Nottingham Forest
Tyrone Mings didn’t need words at full-time. He just sank to the turf, staring at the Villa Park sky as Nottingham Forest’s players celebrated a 2-1 win that cut right through Aston Villa’s fragile early-season confidence.
Three defeats in four league games. A summer rebuild already under scrutiny. Questions piling up for Unai Emery.
The numbers are blunt. Villa ended a run of 372 Premier League minutes without a goal, yet the relief lasted only briefly. If Coventry beat Brighton on Sunday, last season’s Europa League winners will be bottom of the table. Four games in.
It is not uncharted territory for this club. This is the fourth time they have opened a top-flight campaign without a win in their first four matches, after 1992-93, 1997-98 and 2025-26. It also eerily tracks last season’s stumbling start – only this time, the memory of May’s surge to fourth place and European glory feels distant, almost disconnected from the current reality.
Forest seize their moment
For Oliver Glasner, this was a night to savour. A late winner from Igor Jesus delivered his first victory as Forest boss and extended his personal unbeaten run against Emery to eight games. Given the context, this will rank high among them.
Forest were sharper, braver and far more dangerous. They had 22 shots, 32 touches in the Villa box and a centre-forward in Liam Delap who tormented a patched-up back line.
Delap struck just 45 seconds after the restart, racing onto a loose ball to punish Villa’s slackness. He had another effort ruled out, but his relentless movement kept Villa stretched and uneasy. The hosts never really got a grip on him.
Villa did hit back. Brazilian forward Alysson, on as a substitute, glanced in John McGinn’s cross for his first goal in English football, a rare moment of incision from a blunt attack. Under Emery, that kind of equaliser has often been the trigger for a late onslaught at Villa Park.
Not this time.
As Villa chased a winner, their night unravelled. Pau Torres had already been forced off in the first half, thinning an already vulnerable defence. Then came the moment that turned frustration into full-blown concern.
Ian Maatsen crumpled after a challenge from James McAtee. Emery had used all five substitutions. Villa were down to 10 men for the closing stages, and Forest could smell blood.
The pressure finally told. With two minutes left, Jesus darted in front of Aaron Wan-Bissaka to steer in the winner, securing Forest’s first league victory at Villa Park since 1994 and underlining just how far the hosts’ aura at home has faded.
Emery fumes at decision, not at excuse
Emery’s anger after the game was focused, not scattergun. He was clear: the McAtee challenge on Maatsen should have been a red card.
“After watching it on TV, I think the VAR should call the referee because it's a clear tackle behind the player and, for me, it should be a red card,” he said.
He pointed to last weekend, when Joao Gomes saw red at Brighton and Villa “accepted it”. Here, he felt the same standard was not applied.
“He didn't want to injure our player but if we can watch it through the TV, it's a VAR action, and to call the referee and should be a red card, and maybe finishing with 10 v 10 was maybe different in the match,” Emery argued.
But he refused to hide behind it.
“When we equalised the match could change but we finished with Ian Maatsen injured and with 10 players, we conceded so many chances in the last minutes and they scored the second goal and deserved it,” he admitted. “It's not an excuse how we play the second half. We played so so poor, and this is our work and our responsibility or my responsibility.”
The Maatsen injury only deepens Villa’s defensive issues. There is already a fear his ankle problem could keep him out for a significant spell, pushing new signing Matteo Ruggeri into the spotlight earlier than Emery would like. Taylor Harwood-Bellis, a £30m summer arrival, was left out of the squad again but will surely expect a chance in the coming days with a trip to Coventry in the Carabao Cup and then Tottenham away.
Villa Park no longer a fortress
Villa Park used to intimidate. For 12 months, no one won a league game here. That run was broken last August when Glasner, then at Crystal Palace, oversaw a 3-0 victory. He returned in the Carabao Cup and won 2-1. Now he has done it again with Forest.
Since that first Palace defeat, the numbers at home have steadily eroded. Villa lost four of their final 15 league games here last season. They needed late goals to salvage a point against Leeds and to edge past Brighton and Sunderland. Newcastle came and won 3-1 in the FA Cup, exposing the cracks.
This season, the pattern has continued: a 1-0 opening-day loss to champions Arsenal, now followed by Forest’s deserved win.
There are caveats. Emery is bedding in a remodelled squad after key departures. The North Stand redevelopment has slashed capacity and left one end of the ground empty, stripping away some of the noise and intimidation.
But the drop-off is no longer a minor trend. It is a problem.
Yes, Villa delivered when it mattered most last spring – hammering Forest in the Europa League semi-final on the way to lifting the trophy, then putting four past Liverpool to clinch a Champions League place. Those nights felt like the birth of something formidable at Villa Park.
Right now, that feeling has vanished.
Blunt attack, thin defence
The attacking issues are as stark as the defensive ones. Aside from Alysson’s header and one chaotic scramble in the Forest box – when Victor Lindelof somehow failed to score after Matz Sels, Murillo and the post all combined to keep the ball out – Villa offered little.
Nicolas Jackson, booked early, was withdrawn at half-time. Emery feared the Senegal striker might walk for a second yellow, so turned to Tammy Abraham, a player he had been willing to sell in the summer. Abraham could not change the rhythm of the game.
Alysson did, briefly, with his goal, but the momentum never truly swung. Johan Manzambi and Ibrahim Mbaye, who cost a combined £98m, came on in the second half for their debuts. Neither could tilt the contest.
Alejandro Garnacho stayed rooted to the bench again. The Chelsea loanee has yet to convince Emery he deserves minutes.
At the back, the picture is even more troubling. Torres off injured. Maatsen out and potentially facing a long absence. Harwood-Bellis unused. Wan-Bissaka beaten to the decisive goal. A side built on structure and control suddenly looks brittle.
Forest, by contrast, looked liberated. Delap buzzed, McAtee probed, Jesus struck late. Glasner’s side played with the clarity and conviction Villa used to own on this ground.
Searching for answers
Emery cut a puzzled figure afterwards. The equaliser should have ignited his team. Instead, Villa lost their way.
“I don't know why,” he said. “I want to see the match again and to understand why we lost our shape.”
That sentence will echo around Bodymoor Heath in the coming days. This is a coach who has solved problems relentlessly since walking through the door. Now, with his team one result away from the bottom of the table, he must find new answers.
The season is young. The stakes already feel high.
