Aston Villa 1-2 Forest: first league goal, still no points
Aston Villa 1-2 Nottingham Forest settled two questions at Villa Park on Saturday and left one of them worse than before. Villa finally scored their first Premier League goal of the season, a header from the substitute Alysson on seventy-four minutes. Fourteen minutes later Igor Jesus, on as a substitute himself, won the match for Forest, and Villa are still waiting for a first league win.
Forest deserved it on the numbers. They had twenty-two shots to Villa’s seven and put seven on target, and it took two saves from Zion Suzuki in the space of two minutes late on to keep the score level for as long as it stayed level. Two minutes after the second of them, Forest scored.
Delap scores in the first minute of the second half
The first half was goalless, with both goalkeepers busy. Matz Sels saved from Victor Lindelöf and Ian Maatsen inside the first eight minutes, and from Ross Barkley on thirty-two. Suzuki kept out James McAtee, Morgan Gibbs-White and Dan Ndoye. Villa also lost Pau Torres to injury after twenty-five minutes, with Tyrone Mings coming on.
Forest scored almost as soon as the second half began. On forty-six minutes Murillo found Liam Delap, who struck right-footed from outside the box into the bottom left corner. It was Delap’s first league goal of the season.
Villa had made two changes at half-time, sending on Tammy Abraham for Nicolas Jackson and Alysson for George Hemmings, and two more on sixty-three minutes, when Ibrahim Mbaye and Johan Manzambi replaced Emiliano Buendía and Barkley. The equaliser came from one of those substitutes, via a set piece.
Alysson ends the wait
On seventy-four minutes, following a corner, John McGinn crossed and Alysson headed from the centre of the box into the bottom right corner. A minute earlier Sels had saved from Mbaye. It was Villa’s first goal in the Premier League this season, at the fourth attempt and after more than 340 minutes without one across a 4-0 defeat at Brighton, a 1-0 home defeat by Arsenal and a goalless draw at Hull.
It should have been the platform for at least a point. It was not. On eighty-five minutes Suzuki saved a header from Daniel Muñoz, and on eighty-six another from Xaver Schlager, both from crosses. Two minutes later Gibbs-White found Igor Jesus in the centre of the box and his right-footed shot went into the bottom left corner. Jesus had been on the pitch for thirteen minutes, having replaced Ndoye on seventy-five.
- Liam Delap (Nottingham Forest), 46 minutes: assisted by Murillo
- Alysson (Aston Villa), 74 minutes: header from a John McGinn cross after a corner
- Igor Jesus (Nottingham Forest), 88 minutes: assisted by Morgan Gibbs-White
- Shots: Aston Villa 7 (5 on target), Nottingham Forest 22 (7 on target)
- Corners: Aston Villa 6, Nottingham Forest 1
- Yellow cards: Aston Villa 2, Nottingham Forest 5
A physical afternoon, and Forest’s first league win
Forest committed sixteen fouls to Villa’s eleven and collected five yellow cards: Ndoye and Murillo before half-time, then Schlager, Delap and McAtee after the break. Villa had two, for Jackson and, in stoppage time, Mings. Andy Madley was the referee, and he was kept busy throughout.
It is Forest’s first league win of the season. They lost 1-0 at home to Leeds on the opening weekend, then drew 2-2 at Anfield and 0-0 with Tottenham. Five points from four matches leaves them eleventh, and it is a far more comfortable place to be than the one they started Saturday in.
Villa, meanwhile, had 53.3% of the ball and six corners at home and produced seven shots. The possession is not the problem. What they do with it is: one goal from four league matches, seven conceded, and a single point, from the goalless draw at Hull.
Where Villa go from here
Villa are nineteenth with one point. The immediate fixture is a trip to Coventry City in the Carabao Cup third round on Wednesday, against a side that has not yet taken a point in the league.
The scale of the job is clear in the table. Of the twenty clubs, only Tottenham and Coventry have scored fewer goals than Villa’s one, and both of those have scored none. A first league goal is something. A first league win is what the table needs.
Simulate the rest of the Premier League season
Villa’s opening month has left them with a gap to close, and Forest have just shown how quickly a season can turn. The Premier League simulator on this site plays out the remaining fixtures from the real table, so you can see how much a start like Villa’s actually costs by May.
- Play the remaining 34 rounds from the real table and the real fixture list
- Simulate this week’s Carabao Cup third-round ties, including Coventry City against Aston Villa
- Run any fixture through the AI match simulator, in tactical view or in the physics arena
- Open the line-up builder for both clubs before you kick off a simulation
- Turn an arena simulation into a vertical video ready to share
"Villa waited more than 340 minutes for a first league goal. Forest needed fourteen more minutes to win the match."