Aston Villa are all-in against Nottingham Forest. Unai Emery's gambit has to pay off

Unai Emery saw his Aston Villa side fall to a 1-0 loss at Nottingham Forest Andrew Kearns - CameraSport via Getty Images Share articleAs much as Unai Emery appreciated the thrilling Champions League classic between his old club Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich earlier in the week, a lot of what he watched would have caused a shiver down his spine. This 5-4 encounter, abounding with transition and one-v-one opportunities, was highly entertaining but far removed from Emery’s planned approach two days later. He told journalists that he expected a “long match” across two legs of a Europa League semi-final against Nottingham Forest. If PSG versus Bayern was a free-for-all, Emery wanted Villa’s first leg to be an extreme de-escalation of that. He wanted long periods with and without the ball, reducing transitions and end-to-end, energy-sapping runs. Emery’s eminence in Europe has been predicated on managing two-legged contests, knowing that the pace and rhythm is different. Even though he never wants to show his hand early, the question is whether the cards he does hold can triumph. Emery will argue his fine-margins approach, however blunt Villa presently appear in attack, could have been validated if Ollie Watkins’ close-range shot was not straight at Stefan Ortega or if Lucas Digne had not flapped his arms inside the box to give away a penalty. Or, even in retrospect, with the Villa bench having only initially appealed in half-hearted and littered fashion, had Elliot Anderson been sent off for a lunge on Watkins. “If VAR called the referee for the penalty, why didn’t they check at least the red card for Anderson?” questioned Villa’s director of football operations, Damian Vidagany, on X. “Huge mistake of VAR referee tonight, it did not help the (on)field ref.” “VAR is its responsibility; it’s a huge mistake. It’s a huge mistake,” repeated Emery, in his annoyance. “Ollie Watkins was close to breaking his ankle.” Emery was swift and concise with his words afterwards. His players were shown footage of the tackle, calculatedly riling up their ire for next week. The Spaniard left hurriedly, carrying a frown that owed to a sense of injustice. His counterpart, Vitor Pereira, left following a much lengthier press conference, declaring he was going to celebrate with a beer. Ultimately, though, Emery was content with Villa’s approach and largely how the game unfolded. Villa kept the ball in the opening 40 seconds, passing around the back unhurriedly and gradually moving upfield. This set the tone and, truthfully, the strategy they wished to implement. A quarter of an hour into the match with the home supporters growing subdued, Emery stood still, with his hands in his pockets — a clue of his relative satisfaction. Villa can be vulnerable to cheap giveaways in midfield, so Emery moved Morgan Rogers alongside Watkins up front and in the insideright channel, higher upfield and not in central or deep positions where he can be swarmed. Instead, he stayed exclusively between Forest’s left centre-back, Morato, and Nico Williams, the left-back. Villa intended to play through the lines centrally, aided by a box midfield creating overloads and finding either Rogers or Watkins, who were in opposing channels. Rogers isolated Morato either in or just outside the box on five occasions and, similarly to during their loss to Fulham last weekend, instigated Villa’s two best opportunities — a shot saved by Ortega and a cross that fell to Watkins. The full-backs, meanwhile, took their time from throw-ins, ensuring team-mates behind the ball were secure and Emiliano Martinez, who produced a second spellbinding save in as many visits to Nottingham, dallied from goal kicks. In other words, Emery wanted to avoid anything remotely similar to PSG versus Bayern. After Chris Wood scored from the spot and the City Ground cranked up the noise, and fireworks were being readied to be set off just outside at full-time, Emery signalled for the temperature to be cooled and the tempo, in and out of possession, to be slowed, allowing order to be restored. He yelled at Ezri Konsa to keep the ball across the back line and stopped his wide players from rushing out to press after ceding possession. “If we could not score in 70 minutes, in 20 minutes when they were defending, my concern is: ‘please, we will try to draw but we are playing another game at Villa Park, so don’t concede another goal’,” said Emery. “The players were managing the match how I wanted.” Consolidating structure was paramount pre-game. It was why Villa and Emery were pushing Amadou Onana to play through the pain barrier, knowing that a Belgian axis in midfield, consisting of him and Youri Tielemans, was the best way to provide a firm base. Several sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity to protect relationships, stated earlier in the week that Onana was expected to miss one or two matches, but had trained on Wednesday and was named in the starting XI on Thursday morning. “We played the match we expected,” added Emery. “We could have won, drawn, or lost, because the match was so tight. We both played with the characteristics and identity we have.” The drag Villa have to tussle with is whether they have, or can discover, the firepower needed which will determine if Emery’s poker-like approach over two legs is a success. Villa will have to score at home when they meet Forest again next week and find a level of incision which has been profoundly absent in the past two matches, which have both ended in 1-0 defeats. Vidagany described the second leg against Forest as the “match of our lives” and this, unmistakably, is the defining match of Emery’s era so far. It is Villa’s third semi-final and Thursday’s 1-0 loss to Forest was the fourth defeat out of four, taking into account two Conference League legs against Olympiacos in the 2023-24 season and an FA Cup defeat to Crystal Palace last year.

But Villa and Emery share a conviction that they have learned from past errors. They ran out of gas in their 6-2 aggregate loss to Olympiacos in 2024, according to Emery, and then “did not turn up” according to Watkins. Losing 3-0 to Palace at Wembley last season was a major failure, yet has only strengthened their desire to right the wrongs this time. Frankly, the proof will be within 90 minutes, or longer, next Thursday. Emery knows how to manage the nuances and winding momentum-changes that materialise in the cut and thrust of two pressurised matches. His approach will either be vindicated or condemned by this time next week. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms