Emery on Forest loss

FixturesAston Villa Vs. Nottingham Forest - Sat, Sep 12 2026, 15:00Unai Emery felt it was a game of two halves as Aston Villa fell to defeat against Nottingham Forest in the Premier League on Saturday. The hosts were in control throughout the opening 45 minutes at Villa Park before the Reds flipped the script in the second half and became the aggressors. Emery was disappointed with how his team were left to finish the game with ten men after Ian Maatsen suffered an injury from a tough tackle with the score at 1-1. “It was a difficult match in 90 minutes,” he said. “The first half, we played really fantastic, like we were planning and building the team. We stopped them, dominated, created chances and had corners offensively. “The second half was completely different; I don’t know why. They started by scoring quickly and we lost our shape, we lost our position like we were in the first half. “Even offensively we were not controlling the game like we did in the first half. They showed their power to play against us here, creating more chances than normal. Usually we are being compact and not conceding so many chances. “We made changes in the second half and we drew level. In that moment we were recovering our good balance, but the injury to Maatsen was penalising us. They created chances and scored the second goal.“The action of Ian Maatsen being injured, after I watched it on the TV, it was a tackle that normally the VAR should call the referee to watch. From my point of view, it should be a red card.” B6 rose to acclaim debutants Ibrahim Mbaye and Johan Manzambi in the second half, as the summer signings came off the bench. Emery expects them to grow in stature as they gain fitness and form. He said: “Manzambi, after a long time, this is the first minutes he’s played, and Mbaye showed us his skill, threatening them on the left side. “This is their first match and hopefully we can continue progressing with those players, getting minutes.”