A late capitulation saw Aston Villa suffer a 2-1 defeat at Nottingham Forest on Saturday, as our three-game winning streak came to a disappointing and frustrating end.
Jhon Duran’s goal just after the hour mark appeared set to be our winner, but the hosts had other ideas as they launched a comeback in the final 10 minutes to turn things around.
READ MORE: What Unai Emery said in assessment of Villa’s defeat to Nottingham Forest
The loss means Villa stay in sixth place ahead of the remaining fixtures this weekend, with Forest moving three points clear of us with their victory, and into fourth spot for the time being.
It’s a bitter blow given we’ve started to find form again in recent weeks after our slump, and now we face a difficult Christmas schedule with Manchester City, Newcastle Utd and Brighton up next.
Positive signs overshadowed by capitulation
Albeit not entirely consistent over the four-game stretch, but there was a sense that Villa were getting back to a solid level of performance and making progress after concern was growing during our eight-game winless run as we looked an almost broken-down team.
We’ve started to play with a level of control and structure again, the ‘Emery way’ as it were that has been a fundamental part of our progress to get to the position that we’re in currently, and so to throw all that good work in the opening 75 minutes or so away with a horrendous ending to the game, was bitterly disappointing.
That was the message sent by the Villa boss in his post-match interviews in that he was happy with how we played for most of the game but we lost that control in the latter stages, and perhaps ominously for some, he insisted that he knows the reasons why and where we still need to improve.
Boubacar Kamara a joy to watch
Similarly to the point above, Kamara’s performance in this game will be overshadowed by the defeat, but the French midfielder was excellent once again as he continues to reiterate just how important he is for us in that defensive midfield role.
Whether it was making clearances in the box or intercepting Forest as they tried to play out into midfield, Kamara’s positional awareness is exceptional, and it’s a key part of our ability to build sustained pressure and control games.
Coupled with his composure and technical ability in possession, it was another positive display from him as he is back to being a pillar of this Villa team.
Jhon Duran continues to strengthen his claim for starting role
That’s now 11 goals in 24 games so far this season, as Duran produced the decisive moment we needed in the second half having lacked quality in the final third prior to that point.
He still needs to improve his hold-up play and his ability to link things together, but he was more efficient with that side of his game in the second half before he was replaced.
It continues to give Emery a selection headache now, as although he will likely favour Ollie Watkins given what he brings to the role from an all-round package perspective, Duran is showing consistency and maturity to warrant more minutes.
Emi Martinez magic not enough
Just minutes before Duran’s opener, Emiliano Martinez produced one of the most sensational saves we’ll see in some time as he somehow managed to prevent the ball from crossing the line despite having to reach back to claw it away from a point-blank effort.
At that time, it was hoped that it would prove to be a decisive moment in the contest that would lead to Villa securing all three points, and having taken the lead, it looked to be on course to be exactly that.
Again though, the defeat overshadows all these moments as it ultimately wasn’t enough, but it certainly deserved to be instead of sadly becoming a likely forgettable moment in the coming days.
Defensive reshuffle needed
Despite some improvement over the past fortnight, Villa continue to leak goals and it’s going to continue to undo our positive work unless something is done to fix it.
Emery had wanted to play Tyrone Mings in this game but illness ruled him out in the warm-up, and given the way in which the game went in the end, it was clear why the Villa boss wanted our centre-half stalwart in the heart of the backline to give us some steeliness and physical presence.
Could it be time to go back to the old partnership of Mings and Ezri Konsa in the middle for an extended run? Emery noted in midweek that he still needs to work on playing Mings and Pau Torres together, but in an effort to get back to basics, become harder to beat, perhaps it’s our old trusted centre-half partnership that will give us a more solid foundation?
We saw positive signs of that in our win over Brentford, and with question marks over Diego Carlos, coupled with Konsa not playing his preferred role when shifted across to right-back, that may well be the way forward for us.