Villa has its sights firmly set on
Forest was lucky still to be in the game at halftime after being overrun in the first 40 minutes but improved after the break and had enough chances to scrape a point, which would have been handy in its battle against relegation.
Villa needed less than four minutes to go in front as Watkins scored his 14th of the season. This was one of his easiest finishes, though, thanks to the work of Bailey, who gave him a simple tap-in after being played in down the right and making light work of Murillo.
Villa’s second goal came just before the half-hour mark and again was built on the right as
Forest captain Gibbs-White summoned his team for a huddle and gave an impassioned speech, but it had little impact as Villa went 3-0 up in the 39th minute.
Forest pulled a goal back in first-half stoppage time as
The visitors made three changes at halftime and it had the perfect impact as they made it 3-2 shortly after the restart when substitute Divock Origi slipped Gibbs-White through and he clipped over goalkeeper
Moments later, it should have been 3-3 as Anthony Elanga was sent clear by Origi but dragged his shot wide.
Villa took control again on the hour mark to make it 4-2 when
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