1 week ago
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Aston Villa continue to surpass expectations as they bounced back from defeat by Arsenal to cement their place in the top three. Ollie Watkins celebrated his 250th appearance for the club with his fourth goal in three games and John McGinn added two more as Unai Emery’s side won their 11th straight home game.
Villa’s ability to score out of next to nothing epitomises their season. They managed this game superbly, inflicting a fourth straight defeat on Nottingham Forest, but if the league table was made up of their expected goals difference, they would have started this weekend in 15th place.
Instead they overtook Manchester City, who play Chelsea on Sunday, to move within three points of the league leaders who had ambushed them 4-1 at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday. Arsenal play Bournemouth on Saturday evening.
Few would have suspected Villa had lost their previous game as they set about swatting Forest aside. These are troubling times for Sean Dyche’s side, for whom Morgan Gibbs-White had reduced the deficit to 2-1, as they are dragged into the relegation scrap.
Watkins should probably have been celebrating his 250th appearance for Villa with a goal within two minutes of kick-off but John Victor, retaining his place from Matz Sels, saved superbly from point-blank range.
This offered great relief for Neco Williams, who, reverting to left-back with Ola Aina back from his long-term hamstring injury, took too long to clear and was dispossessed by Morgan Rogers, who fed Watkins for a toe-poke goalwards from six yards out.
Villa were so dominant in the early stages, with 81% possession, that Youri Tielemans had completed more passes (26) than the entire Forest team (21) in the opening quarter of an hour.
The nearest they came to scoring before the goal was through penalty calls, with Nikola Milenkovic testing his luck when wrestling with Rogers then Tielemans inside the area.
Forest did counter well occasionally and Omari Hutchinson prompted Emi Martínez to dive full length to save after Nicolás Domínguez stole possession from Boubacar Kamara then Victor Lindelöf.
Just as Forest thought they had implemented the perfect gameplan, Villa went ahead. Kamara’s header down to Tielemans allowed Rogers to pass in to Watkins’s feet. He turned inside before walloping in his sixth goal in eight games from the edge of the area.
That took the stuffing out of Forest. McGinn, rested from the starting lineup on Tuesday, converted with a smart left-foot shot from Matty Cash’s nimble first-time cross four minutes into the second half.
Gibbs-White gave Forest hope by running on to Dilane Bakwa’s through pass to dink home but the victory was wrapped up when John Victor inexplicably came out of his goal to deal with Tieleman’s pass and McGinn rounded him before slotting into an empty net from 30 yards.
