Unai Emery’s side put defeat at Arsenal behind them with a dominant display at Villa Park. Check out the best facts and Opta data in our Aston Villa vs Nottingham Forest stats page.
Aston Villa bounced back from the disappointment of a big defeat at Arsenal in midweek with a convincing win over struggling Nottingham Forest.
Midfielder John McGinn, dropped for the trip to the Emirates, scored only the second brace of his Villa career to fire his side to a 13th win in their last 15 games and put them second in the table, above Manchester City but having played a game more.
Looking to get back to winning ways and reassert their credentials at the top of the table after seeing Arsenal end their eight-game winning run in devastating fashion, Villa set out on the front foot. Pressing high inside 90 seconds, Morgan Rogers forced an error from Neco Williams and the ball ricocheted straight to Ollie Watkins, just a few yards from goal. After a poor first touch, though, his shot was smothered well by John Victor in the Forest goal.
It was an unusually fast start for Villa, with that effort their first shot on target inside the first five minutes of a Premier League game in 2025-26. Extraordinarily, after just two minutes, they had already registered a higher xG (0.61) than they accumulated in the first five minutes of their 38 league games in 2025 (0.57).
Villa dominated the whole first half, completing 247 passes in the opposition’s half – their highest total in the first half of a Premier League game in Opta’s record books (since 2003-04) – and maintaining 77.8% possession. But despite seeing so much of the ball, they struggled to break Forest down, and it took a strike from distance – a common theme of Villa’s season – for them to find a way through.
Again, Villa won the ball high up the pitch and Rogers fed Watkins, with the England striker firing high into the net to put Villa into a deserved lead. Since the start of December, no player has more Premier League goals than Watkins (six, level with Dominic Calvert-Lewin).
Just a few minutes after the break, McGinn, back in the starting lineup here, doubled Villa’s lead, turning Matty Cash’s square ball into the net.
Out of nowhere and almost completely undeservedly, Morgan Gibbs-White pulled a goal back for the visitors, racing onto Dilane Bakwa’s pass before chipping expertly into the net. It was Gibbs-White’s 50th Premier League goal involvement (22 goals, 28 assists), meaning he is the sixth player with a hyphenated surname to reach 50 in the competition. The others are Son Heung-Min, James Ward-Prowse, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Shaun Wright-Phillips.
But Forest lost any momentum they might have built up when Victor came charging out of his goal to try and meet a Youri Tielemans ball over the top but failed to get anywhere near it. McGinn beat him to it, dribbled around the stranded Forest keeper, and fired into the empty net from distance.
It was the 12th Premier League goal Villa have scored from outside the box this season. They have only scored more in two other seasons in their Premier League history – 1993-94 (13) and 2007-08 (16) – and we’re only a matter of days into January.
While it was perhaps no surprise to see Villa score from distance, it was a shock that McGinn was in the goals. In 311 games in all competitions for Villa, this was only McGinn’s second brace, with the other also coming against Forest, way back in March 2019 in the Championship.
For Forest, a fourth defeat in a row leaves them a little too close to the relegation zone for comfort, and Tuesday night’s meeting with West Ham, who are four points behind them, looks massive.
For Villa, this win boosts their hopes of an unlikely challenge for the title. It had looked at Arsenal as though defeat might take the air out of their season, but they showed no signs of giving up their chase here.
Our Opta match centre delivers you all the Aston Villa vs Nottingham Forest stats from their Premier League meeting at Villa Park.
The match centre below includes team and player stats, expected goals data, passing networks, an Opta chalkboard and more. It gives you everything you need to do your own match analysis.
Underneath the match centre you can find the official Opta stats on the game as well.
Aston Villa vs Nottingham Forest Stats: Post-Match Facts
Aston Villa have now won each of their last eight Premier League home games, their outright second-longest such run in the competition, only behind a 15-game streak between March and December 2023, also under Unai Emery. Aston Villa recorded a 73.1% share of possession against Nottingham Forest, their third highest in a Premier League game at Villa Park since Opta have recorded this data (2003-04) – the Villans’ tally of 574 successful passes was also their most in the league this season. Only Ashley Young & Gabriel Agbonlahor (14), and Ashley Young & John Carew (14) have combined for more Premier League goals for Aston Villa than Morgan Rogers and Ollie Watkins (10).Enjoy this? Subscribe to our football newsletter to receive exclusive weekly content. You should also follow our social accounts over on X, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.
Aston Villa 3-1 Nottingham Forest Stats: John McGinn Scores Rare Double to Get Villa Back to Winning Ways Opta Analyst.
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