Aston Villa's Struggles Continue After Defeat to Nottingham Forest

Tyrone Mings stayed down on the Villa Park turf at full-time, staring at nothing. Nobody ever said this was going to be easy, but Aston Villa’s slide is now impossible to ignore.

Nottingham Forest walked away with a 2-1 win, their first league victory at Villa Park since 1994, and left Unai Emery with three defeats in four league games and a growing list of questions he cannot yet answer.

From glory to anxiety

Four games, no wins. It is the fourth time Villa have opened a top-flight campaign without a victory in their first four matches, matching grim starts in 1992-93, 1997-98 and 2025-26. The symmetry with last season is eerie: a slow, worrying opening followed by a surge that ended in fourth place and a historic Europa League triumph.

Right now, those May celebrations feel distant. Faded. Almost irrelevant.

Villa did at least end a run of 372 Premier League minutes without a goal, but that statistic only underlined the problem: this is a side searching for rhythm, identity and, increasingly, confidence. If Coventry beat Brighton on Sunday, Villa will wake up bottom of the table.

Delap ignites Forest, Villa unravel

The second half had barely begun when the first punch landed. Just 45 seconds after the restart, Liam Delap struck, punishing a Villa defence that had already lost Pau Torres to injury in the first half and looked increasingly fragile.

Delap, rejuvenated and relentless, terrorised Villa’s backline. He had another effort ruled out and led a Forest attack that racked up 22 shots and 32 touches inside the Villa box. Villa simply could not live with him.

Emery’s side did find a response. Against the run of play, Brazilian forward Alysson, on for the second half, glanced in John McGinn’s cross to level with his first goal in English football. Villa Park, flat for so long, briefly found its voice.

Normally, that is the cue. Under Emery, a Villa equaliser at home has so often been the spark for a late surge, a grandstand finish, a storm of pressure that breaks opponents.

Not this time.

Injuries, red-card fury and a late twist

Instead, the game tilted further away from Villa. Torres had already gone off. Then came another blow: left-back Ian Maatsen was forced off with an ankle injury after a challenge from James McAtee. Emery had used all his substitutes. Villa were down to 10 men.

The fear is Maatsen could be out for a significant spell, thrusting new signing Matteo Ruggeri into the spotlight earlier than Emery would have planned.

Emery was furious with the officiating on the Maatsen incident and made no attempt to hide it.

“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. “Of course, they deserved it (the win), but the decision of the referee should be different.”

He pointed to Joao Gomes’ dismissal at Brighton as a contrast Villa had “accepted”, but insisted this time the VAR should have intervened and that “maybe finishing with 10 v 10 was maybe different in the match.”

Yet he refused to hide behind the controversy.

“It's not an excuse how we play the second half,” he admitted. “We played so so poor, and this is our work and our responsibility or my responsibility.”

The pressure finally told. With two minutes left, Igor Jesus darted in front of Aaron Wan-Bissaka to stab in the winner, sealing Forest’s first league win under Oliver Glasner and extending the Austrian’s unbeaten record against Emery to eight games.

For Glasner, who already enjoyed success at Villa Park with Crystal Palace last season, this will rank among his most satisfying victories.

Villa’s fortress no more

Villa Park used to intimidate. It no longer does.

Twelve months ago, Villa had not lost at home in the league for a year. Then came a 3-0 defeat to Glasner’s Palace last August. Since then, the walls have kept crumbling.

Last season, they lost four of their final 15 home league games and often needed late goals to salvage results against Leeds, Brighton and Sunderland. A 3-1 FA Cup exit to Newcastle exposed further cracks. This season has opened with a 1-0 home defeat to champions Arsenal and now this bruising loss to Forest.

There are reasons, yes. A summer rebuild after key departures. A reshaped squad still learning each other’s movements. The North Stand redevelopment stripping capacity and leaving one end of the ground without fans, dulling the edge of the atmosphere.

But the drop-off is now too stark to dismiss.

This is the same ground where Villa blew Forest away in last season’s Europa League semi-final and put four past Liverpool to clinch a Champions League place. That sense of inevitability at home has gone. Opponents now arrive believing, not hoping.

Selection calls and attacking struggles

Emery’s options are shrinking at the back. Torres limped off, Maatsen followed, and Taylor Harwood-Bellis – a £30m summer signing – was again left out of the squad entirely. With a Carabao Cup trip to Coventry on Wednesday and a daunting league visit to Tottenham to come, he is surely in line for a chance at the CBS Arena.

At the other end, Villa’s attack misfired again. Forest’s Matz Sels, Murillo and the post combined to deny Victor Lindelof in a chaotic scramble, but clear chances were rare.

Nicolas Jackson, booked early, was withdrawn at half-time. Emery turned to Tammy Abraham, a striker he had been prepared to sell in the summer, largely because he feared Jackson would see red. Alysson came on and scored, but the spark did not spread.

Later, big-money duo Johan Manzambi and Ibrahim Mbaye, signed for a combined £98m, were introduced but could not change the pattern. Alejandro Garnacho, on loan from Chelsea, watched it all from the bench again, still unable to convince Emery he merits minutes.

Forest, by contrast, looked sharp, aggressive and organised. They hunted the ball, broke with purpose and fully earned the right to celebrate at a stadium that once felt off-limits.

Emery searching for answers

By the end, Villa were hanging on, not pushing on. When the final whistle went, Emery was left grappling with the most troubling question of all: why his team could not control the game after equalising.

“I don't know why,” he admitted. “I want to see the match again and to understand why we lost our shape.”

For a manager who has spent his Villa reign providing solutions, this is unfamiliar territory. The table is tightening around them, the injury list is growing, and the aura at Villa Park has drained away.

Coventry in the cup, Tottenham in the league, a season still young but already restless. Where do Villa go from here?