Aston Villa 2-1 Nottingham Forest: Emery's side hold on to boost top-four hopes

Aston Villa held on to earn a 2-1 win over Nottingham Forest to keep their hopes of a top-four finish in the Premier League alive.

The Villa Park faithful were treated to two goals in two minutes early in the first half, with Morgan Rogers and Donyell Malen putting them 2-0 up inside 15 minutes.

The former ghosted in behind Forest's defence to meet Youri Tielemans' lofted pass, while Malen fired Ian Maatsen's cross past Matz Sels from close range.

A much-improved second-half performance from Forest saw half-time substitute Jota Silva halve the deficit after he neatly turned Villa's defence to pick out the bottom corner.

Forest's pressure did not turn into a late equaliser, though, with Elliot Anderson curling an effort just wide of the post, while Murillo struck the crossbar with a powerful effort in stoppage time. 

Villa extended their winning streak to seven games in all competitions despite missing late chances, with Marco Asensio and Tielemans denied by Sels, who did brilliantly to smother Marcus Rashford's strike before clawing away the rebound.

Unai Emery's side move sixth, level on points with Manchester City, who face Manchester United on Sunday, while Forest remain third, missing the chance to close the gap to Arsenal.

Data Debrief: Villa on a roll

Villa have a big week coming up, with a Champions League quarter-final first-leg against Paris Saint-Germain on the horizon, and they continued their preparation with another victory.

It is the first time they have won seven consecutive games in all competitions since a 10-match winning streak between March and April 2019 in the Championship.

In the top-flight, it is their first such run since March 1981 (also seven).

After Arsenal dropped points earlier on Saturday, Forest could have closed in on second, but have now lost four of their last five Premier League away games (W1), having lost just two of their first 11 on the road this season (W7 D2).