Nottingham Forest at Villa Park, Glasner and match facts from the BBC

Tuesday was a good night and it was lovely to see us approach the game in a manner that made us think quite early on that we were going to get three points.

We’ve not seen that in the League this season, but there are reasons for that. Hopefully, the reasons for that are something that we can move on from. That doesn’t mean we will see the same approach tomorrow.

But we can hope.

It’s still early in the season and we are playing a Nottingham Forest side now managed by former Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner and I don’t think Mr Emery ever got the better of him.

Tomorrow will be a different Nottingham Forest to the Nottingham Forest we met at Villa Park a few months ago. And even though that doesn’t really matter much, with all the changes we’ve had, we have to remember that we are going through a sort of transition at the moment and the result against Club Brugge on Tuesday doesn’t mean we’ve turned a corner.

The corner in the Premier League isn’t as sharp as a corner against a side like Club Brugge. Tomorrow will be a tough match but if we’ve learnt anything, it’s a time to be patient .. it’s a long season and things are going to get better, but not because we demand it, because the players are learning how the manager wants the game to be played.

I’ll be back in the morning. Until then, the usual.

Match facts from the BBC

• Aston Villa have won each of their last six Premier League home games against Nottingham Forest. The only side they have won seven in a row against at home in the competition are Derby County from 1996 to 2007.

• Nottingham Forest have lost nine of their 18 Premier League games against Aston Villa (W3 D6), only losing 10+ times against four sides in the competition: Arsenal, Everton, Manchester United, and Newcastle United (all 11).

• Aston Villa are yet to win (D1 L2) or score in the Premier League so far this season; no side has failed to score in their opening four games of a campaign in successive seasons in England’s top four tiers, with Villa having done so in 2025-26.

• Only Bournemouth (12), Brentford (11) and Leeds United (11) have drawn more Premier League games in 2026 than Nottingham Forest (10), while only Andoni Iraola (33) has overseen more draws than Forest boss Oliver Glasner since arriving in the competition in February 2024 (31).

• Aston Villa rank 19th for expected goals (2.6), 18th for touches in the opposition’s box (45) and 16th for xG per shot (0.1) in the Premier League so far this season.

• Nottingham Forest have spent 12.2% of their time in set-piece phases in the Premier League this season, more than any other side, while only Manchester City (80.8%) and Fulham (76.5%) have spent more time in build-up phases than Aston Villa (76.1%).

• Nottingham Forest boss Oliver Glasner never lost to Unai Emery’s Aston Villa side as Crystal Palace manager in the Premier League (P5 W3 D2). It’s the joint-most he’s faced a particular club without defeat (also 5 v Wolves) and outright most he has faced another manager without losing in the competition.

• Among the 37 players in the Premier League so far this season to attempt 20+ long passes, only five have a higher passing accuracy than Aston Villa’s Zion Suzuki (56.5% - 13/23), while he ranks first for goalkeepers overall.

• Only Anthony Elanga (17) and Kai Havertz (15) made more off-ball runs in behind on MD3 of the Premier League than Aston Villa’s Nicolas Jackson (13).

• Only Morgan Rogers (9) has created more chances from open play in the Premier League this season than Nottingham Forest’s James McAtee (8), with his five chances created last time out against Tottenham Hotspur the joint-most by a player in a game this term.