Premier League: Aston Villa tighten hold on second place | OneFootball

The Villains recovered from the stumble against Arsenal and triumphed 3-1 over Nottingham Forest

Although the defeat against Arsenal was a harsh blow to their dream of fighting for the title, Aston Villa showed immediate signs of recovery to stay at the top of the Premier League. The Villains defeated Nottingham Forest 3-1 at Villa Park in the 20th round of the English tournament and are now three points from the top, although with one more match played.

Ollie Watkins, with a goal at the end of the first half, opened the scoring for Unai Emery's team, and John McGinn provided more comfort during the early minutes of the second half. A defensive lapse by Aston Villa allowed Morgan Gibbs-White to break free alone against Emiliano Martínez and chip the ball to score the consolation goal, but McGinn responded shortly after to extend the lead again following an unusual error by goalkeeper John, who to top it off, left injured after that play.

Although this was the game that opened the matchday and the leaders Arsenal and Manchester City still have to play, the team of Dibu Martínez, with this victory, reached the line of 42 points to stand as runner-up to the Gunners (45) and ahead of the Citizens (41). Mikel Arteta's team will visit Bournemouth this Saturday, while Pep Guardiola's team will host Chelsea on Sunday.

Although they conceded a goal and did not manage to secure their fifth clean sheet in the current Premier, Dibu had some important interventions to bring calm to his team. The Argentine goalkeeper was involved in a curious action before the quarter-hour mark with the match tied at zero: a long pass left Igor Jesús alone, but Martínez came out of the area and cleared with his shoulder, although the move was later annulled for offside.

Half an hour in, a cross to the edge of the area found him battling with several rival defenders, but Dibu managed to clear it amidst the struggle. The most outstanding save was undoubtedly at 29 minutes when Omari Hutchinson unleashed a shot that found the Argentine firm in his reaction to maintain the temporary draw. In the second half, with the match at 3-1, the goalkeeper responded well to a sudden shot from Gibbs-White from the edge of the area.

Aston Villa had just let go of an 11-game winning streak with the stumble against Arsenal, including 9 in the Premier League and 2 in the Europa League. With the dream of fighting for the English tournament title, the Villains will play again on next Wednesday, January 7 at the home of Crystal Palace.

At the same time, they maintain their expectations in a Europa League where they are one of the three leaders with 15 points along with Lyon and FC Midtjylland. With five wins and one loss, Emery's team will seek to secure a direct ticket to the round of 16 in the last two dates of the regular phase of the continental tournament: they will visit Fenerbahce of Turkey on Thursday, January 22, and will host Red Bull Salzburg of Austria on the 29th of that month. Besides these two challenges, Aston Villa will also face Tottenham next week in the third round of the FA Cup.

It should be noted that the Villains returned to the Champions League last season for the first time after more than four decades of absence: they were eliminated in the quarterfinals against Paris Saint Germain. In that context, and with half of the Premier League season still ahead, they are well-positioned today to secure another ticket to the next Champions.

The English tournament will award tickets to the teams that finish in the top four places on the table: Aston Villa currently holds a 12-point lead over Chelsea, who are in fifth place.

The other major goal is to fight for the Premier title, as the team with almost 150 years of history last won the English top division in 1980, while their last great performance was with the second place they secured in the 1992/93 tournament won by Manchester United.

Since then, their best results have been a fourth place in 1996 and the historic 2023/24 season. Adding a fifth place obtained in 1997, the Villains finished seven times in sixth place on the table as the next best result in recent decades but then always navigated between the mid-lower part of the standings, even spending three seasons in the second division between 2016 and 2019.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.