Unai Emery says Nottingham Forest will “fight” Aston Villa for a spot in the top eight of the Premier League after his side’s defeat at the City Ground.
Forest came from behind late on to beat the Villans 2-1 at home on Saturday evening.
The first half was excruciatingly boring but the game sparked into life in the 60th minute when Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez pulled off one of the greatest saves in Premier League history.
That was the shot in the arm the game desperately needed and three minutes later the visitors were 1-0 up through a fine Jhon Duran header, his sixth Premier League goal of the season.
Nuno Espirito Santo made some changes and the introduction of Anthony Elanga turned the tide as he assisted Chris Wood five minutes after coming on, though he was marginally offside.
Forest did equalise in the 87th minute when Martinez failed to stop Nikola Milenkovic’s close-range header and Elanga found a deserved winner three minutes into stoppage time, converting Elliot Anderson’s assist to put his side into fourth place, three points above Saturday’s opposition.
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After the sore defeat, Aston Villa head coach Emery said his players “did fantastic” for 70 minutes and defeat against a European qualification rival gives Forest an “advantage” moving forward.
“We played the game plan and did fantastic in the first 70 minutes and scored one goal,” he said.
“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 we did not do that in the last 20 minutes and 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.”
Meanwhile, Matty Cash said after defeat to his former club: “We are really disappointed. We always knew it was a tough place to come.
“The first 60 minutes we did well but maybe we lost a bit of control in the last 30 minutes. We are really disappointed at the end.
“It is tough. You have to come to places like this and be strong and try and get three points. We didn’t do enough to get that but we pick ourselves up and go again next week.
“Everyone is important. We have built a good team bond here and we have a string squad with a fantastic manager. The challenge is to finish as high up as we can. We will go again and look to bounce back.”
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