Aston Villa returned to winning ways at Villa Park yesterday when they beat Nottingham Forest 4-2. Forest were the only side from the bottom half of the table to have beaten Unai Emery’s side this season in the reverse fixture.
It is now two wins on the bounce in the Premier League for Villa as they look to build momentum for the season run-in. Villa are now five points clear of Tottenham who have played a game less and eight ahead of Manchester United.
Report: Aston Villa 4-2 Nottingham Forest
Emery named the same side that beat Fulham last weekend and the players repaid the faith their manager had put in them as they destroyed the visitors in the opening stages of the game.
It took just four minutes for the home side to take advantage when Leon Bailey turned Murillo inside out before laying the ball across goal for Ollie Watkins who tapped home to make it 1-0. The striker could have had his second of the afternoon moments later when Jacob Ramsey found the striker but he was denoyed by Moussa Niakhaté who cleared his effort off the line.
Villa did double their lead just before the half-hour mark when Matty Cash picked out Ramsey who was able to cut the ball back to Douglas Luiz who slotted in the corner of the goal.
Ten minutes later, Forest was in danger of letting Villa run riot when the home side scored their third goal as John McGinn sent over a delightful cross and picked out the head of Luiz who placed the ball past Matz Sels.
Against the run of play the visit...