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Unai Emery slams VAR as he speaks out on Nottingham Forest controversy

Unai Emery slammed VAR for not awarding Morgan Rogers a penalty after Aston Villa's 2-1 defeat at Nottingham Forest.

The Villa forward was dragged to the ground by Elliot Anderson after making his way into the penalty box in the 35th minute of the first half. As his post-match press conference concluded, Villa boss Emery wanted to make his feelings clear about the penalty claims, which referee Sam Barrott turned away before VAR agreed.

"I told in the interview with the TV that I didn't watch the penalty (Rogers incident), but after I watch it, it is a clear penalty," Emery said. "It is a mistake by VAR. It is a big mistake. This is clearly a penalty.

"I respect the referees and the VAR. We watched it after. Damian (Vidagany) showed me and it's a penalty. Clear penalty. Where is the VAR? OK it happens."

Villa went in front through Jhon Duran, who scored his sixth league goal of the season by heading past Matz Sels just after the hour mark. John McGinn served up the cross for the striker to put the visitors in front.

After Chris Wood was denied his 11th goal of the season after Anthony Elanga was called offside by VAR, Villa then conceded two late goals as Nikola Milenkovic equalised before Elanga then bagged the winner in the third minute of added time.

"We played in the game plan and did fantastic in the first 70 minutes and scored one goal," Emery told the BBC after full-time. "We were trying to stop them in the high press but they are not pushing up and we are more or less doing this in the beginning.

"When we scored they pushed more and made changes. We tried to be consistent and then we did not do that in the last 20 minutes and we conceded the goals - one offside - but if we do that we won't be in the top eight.

"We are in the process of building the team and we are trying to be competitive and consistent. Today was a key moment because we are going to fight with them for the opportunity to be in the top eight. Today they got advantage and it is our challenge."

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