Emery wants Villa to learn from Forest defeat

Unai Emery wants his side to learn from Saturday’s Premier League, as Aston Villa fell 2-1 to Nottingham Forest.

Villa took the lead through Jhon Durán just after the hour mark, but succumbed to the hosts’ response, whose late comeback meant Emery’s men left The City Ground empty-handed.

The Villa boss felt his side’s mentality changed in the final 20 minutes of the affair, and called for his players to draw lessons from this experience.

He said: “We are in the process, and we have to understand it.

“Today was a match, we were on 25 points with Nottingham Forest. They are our rival now.

“We planned the match how we did for 70 minutes, and in the last 20 they started pushing more. We didn’t keep the same idea [and] mentality we needed.

“Of course, being under pressure is more difficult, and this is the process we have to try to learn, and experiences we have to try to take.

“We lost a very good opportunity today. Try to be more consistent in the table.”

Durán’s 11^th goal of the season had initially put the Villans on course for a fourth-straight victory and, despite praising the Colombian’s individual performance, Emery was keen to keep the attention on his side’s collective disappointment.

“Individual skill and quality is very important, but today, most important is [the] collective, and we lost,” he added.

“Of course, it’s a good goal for him. Keep going, and try to be stronger defensively. We conceded a lot in 20 minutes, more than normal.

“The first objective we have, always, defensively, is to try to keep the ball possession longer, and better than we did the last 20 minutes.”