Key events
HALF TIME: Aston Villa 2-0 Nottingham Forest
Villa flew out of the traps and have been largely excellent. Forest haven’t looked their usual solid selves at the back, though they’ve threatened to burst into attacking life. A few things for Nuno to sort out during the break.
45 min +1: Williams crosses long from the left. Dominguez wins a header at the far stick but can only slap it harmlessly at Martinez.
45 min: Yates curls in from the right. Elanga telescopes a leg but can’t control. Had he managed to kill the ball, he’d have been free down the inside-right channel, one on one in the box with Martinez.
43 min: Gibbs-White strides down the left and wins a corner, but then the flag pops up for offside. Martinez hasn’t yet had to make a proper save.
41 min: Murillo and Dominguez, playing out from the back at half speed and not quite on the same wavelength, are nearly embarrassed by Maatsen, who arrives on the scene at pace and briefly threatens to scoot into the box. The sleepy Forest pair are fortunate that Maatsen takes a heavy touch, and Murillo can make up for his role in the unfolding scene by blocking and clearing.
40 min: Hudson-Odoi cuts a ball back from the right. Yates sidefoots powerfully towards goal, but straight at Martinez.
39 min: Tielemans crosses low from the left. Milenkovic shanks clear. The ball pings off the corner flag and stays in play. Tielemans tries again but can’t beat the first man. Villa stepping it up again after those aforementioned quiet ten minutes.
37 min: Watkins has the chance to send Malen free down the left, but carelessly clanks his pass straight into the nearest blue shirt.
36 min: Asensio aims the free kick towards the top left, but it’s too close to Sels, who claims without fuss.
35 min: Murillo has a nibble at Rogers, testing the referee’s patience. Just a lecture. Then Anderson carelessly clips Onana’s ankle, with the Villa midfielder running away from the danger zone and going nowhere. Now it’s a free kick in a dangerous position, just to the right of the Forest D.
33 min: Forest have managed to calm things down a bit. They’ve shown some promise in attack, while Villa haven’t created anything for ten minutes or so. Given how the game started, that’s decent progress.
31 min: Williams scoops a pass down the left for Elanga, who should race clear on goal, but takes a poor first touch, allowing Disasi to get back and poke the ball away. Elanga falls over, claiming a penalty, and there was some contact, but the Forest man looked to have instigated it. Anyway, neither referee nor VAR is buying it.
30 min: “Que sera sera, whatever will be will be, we’re going to Wembley,” sing some fans. Not sure which. Could be either set, couldn’t it. “It’s not impossible that today is a dress rehearsal for the FA Cup final,” observes Kieran McKintosh.
28 min: Elanga attempts to release Dominguez down the right with a raking diagonal pass, but Maatsen reads the danger well, racing back to intercept.
27 min: Garcia tries to burn his way past Williams on the right, but a heavy touch takes him out of play. Goal kick. His boss Unai Emery applauds his effort and intention nonetheless.
25 min: … so somewhere in the multiverse, Forest have replied to Villa’s 138-second double whammy with a two-minute dual salvo of their own. In this one, they were a few precious inches here and there away from hauling the hosts back to 2-2. But here we are. The small margins between success and failure in sport.
23 min: … and now Forest miss by inches to the left of goal. Yates wins possession in the centre circle and sends Hudson-Odoi away down the inside-right channel. His low bobbler only just flies wide of the left-hand post.
22 min: … but where there’s Elanga, there’s always hope for Forest, and the striker nearly replicates his pitch-length goal against Manchester United with a searing dribble down the inside-left channel. He makes it all the way to the edge of the box before whipping a low effort across Martinez and wide right.
21 min: Williams faffs around, allowing Asensio to steal away with the ball. The Forest defender, so sloppy there, is fortunate that the resulting shot is blocked.
19 min: Garcia, Malen and Watkins nearly open Forest up with some intricate triangulation down the right. Not quite, but Villa are stroking it around in such style that a third goal in short order wouldn’t come as much of a shock.
17 min: Two minutes and 18 seconds between the goals. Forest need a response, and their captain Yates has a dig from the best part of 30 yards. His shot is deflected wide left. From the resulting corner, Dominguez sends a speculative effort miles wide left. The home fans en fête.
GOAL! Aston Villa 2-0 Nottingham Forest (Malen 15)
This is another simple, beautiful goal. Maatsen twists Yates inside and out, gliding past him down the left. A low cross is slammed home by Malen from six yards, Williams nowhere to be seen. Villa playing with such confidence!
GOAL! Aston Villa 1-0 Nottingham Forest (Rogers 13)
This is simple and so effective. Tielemans caresses a pass down the inside-left channel for Rogers, who takes a touch to enter the box before whistling a low shot through the legs of Sels and into the bottom right. Only 13 minutes in, but it had been coming.
11 min: Sky flash up a stat: Villa have already made 12 successful passes in Forest’s final third. Make that 15, as the hosts probe this way and that, with Garcia, Disasi and Maatsen buzzing around.
10 min: Malen chases a long pass down the right. Murillo summons up all of his strength to hold him off and usher the ball out for a goal kick. Only just, mind.
9 min: A pocket of space for Tielemans, in a central position, 25 yards out. He aims for the top-left corner but gets the shot all wrong, dragging it miles wide. The home side are very much on top in these early stages, and they’re already creating chances.
8 min: Garcia makes good down the right touchline and curls a low cross into the Forest box. Asensio extends a leg and attempts to steer the ball into the bottom-left corner, but the effort is always bouncing wide left. Sels wouldn’t have got to it.
6 min: Maatsen one-twos crisply with Rogers down the left. He enters the box and hits a low, hard shot-cum-cross that Sels does well to bat away with a strong arm. That would have been a pretty goal.
5 min: Watkins drops deep and has the chance to slip Malen free down the right, but clanks the pass straight to Yates. Villa on the front foot early doors.
4 min: Elanga plays a ball down the right for Dominguez. Rogers intercepts and holds off his opponent before turning and clearing, but he needed to battle hard to do so. Dominguez a proper pest. Rogers defending very well.
3 min: Asensio advances down the inside-right channel before playing a ball forward to absolutely nobody. Watkins failing to make the expected run. Goal kick.
2 min: Forest – who deliberately kept their hosts waiting before kick-off, forming a huddle that went on a bit longer than was absolutely necessary – are kicking towards the Holte End in this first half.
Forest get the ball rolling. But only after a knee is taken: there’s no room for racism.
The teams are out! Villa in their famous claret and blue, Forest in second-choice powder blue. Jets of steam and fireworks. A show that would be spectacular were it not trumped by the blazing sun. We’ll be off in a couple of your British Summer Minutes.
Nuno Espírito Santo speaks to Sky. “It will be very difficult … Villa is a very good team … we expect a very tough match … unfortunately both [Chris Wood and Taiwo Awoniyi] are out so we have to try to find solutions.”
Unai Emery talks to Sky Sports. “Good afternoon … we did changes in Brighton and Brentford and won there … I believe in the players … they are ready to play … the good news in the squad now is we can have recovering players.”
Should Forest win tonight, they’d complete their first league double over Villa since the 1984-85 Canon League First Division. Forest won this fixture 5-0 that season, Trevor Christie with a hat-trick, Ian Bowyer and Steve Hodge with the other goals. Anyway, here’s what happened at the City Ground earlier this season.
Here’s how the Premier League table looks after these results …
Crystal Palace 2-1 Brighton & Hove Albion
Everton 1-1 Arsenal
Ipswich Town 1-2 Wolverhampton Wanderers
West Ham United 2-2 Bournemouth
This evening’s game represents an opportunity for Nottingham Forest to close the gap on Arsenal to three points. Second place far from a pipe dream now, especially with Mikel Arteta’s side preoccupied with the Champions League. Villa also have one eye on Europe, but they’ll still want to secure participation for next season via a top-five finish, so closing in Manchester City would help with that.
Aston Villa, who have won their last six matches in all competitions, make eight changes to their starting XI after the 3-0 win at Brighton & Hove Albion. Wednesday’s trip to PSG clearly uppermost in mind. Only Morgan Rogers, Youri Tielemans and Emiliano Martínez, the latter captain for the day, keep their places. Tyrone Mings, Andrés García, Axel Disasi, Ian Maatsen, Amadou Onana, Donyell Malen, Ollie Watkins and Marco Asensio step up; John McGinn, Matty Cash, Ezri Konsa, Lucas Digne, Pau Torres, Jacob Ramsey, Boubacar Kamara and Marcus Rashford drop to the bench.
Nottingham Forest, unbeaten in six, make three changes to the team that started the 1-0 victory over Manchester United. Callum Hudson-Odoi, Morato and Nicolás Domínguez are in; Danilo drops to the bench while Taiwo Awoniyi and the injured Ola Aina miss out altogether. Leading scorer Chris Wood is still absent with a hip problem.
The teams
Aston Villa: Martinez, Garcia, Disasi, Mings, Maatsen, Onana, Tielemans, Malen, Asensio, Rogers, Watkins.
Subs: Olsen, Cash, Konsa, McGinn, Rashford, Digne, Torres, Ramsey, Kamara.
Nottingham Forest: Sels, Williams, Milenkovic, Murillo, Morato, Yates, Anderson, Dominguez, Gibbs-White, Elanga, Hudson-Odoi.
Subs: Carlos Miguel, Sangare, Toffolo, Moreira, Jota Silva, Sosa, Danilo, Boly, Abbott.
Referee: Simon Hooper (Wiltshire).
Preamble
A world in which Villa and Forest are two of the best teams around? ATV should never have lost its licence. Kick-off is at 5.30pm BST. It’s on!
