Elanga seals comeback win over Aston Villa to send Nottingham Forest fourth
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Nuno Espírito Santo encouraged supporters to raise a beer to this “special” victory after late goals from Nikola Milenkovic and Anthony Elanga enabled Nottingham Forest to win this battle of the former European Cup winners and climb into the Champions League places.
![[Emiliano Martínez pulled off an incredible one-handed save from Nicolás Domínguez’s effort just before Aston Villa took the lead.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/6f1461f729c4d0cf499dc23d06d81ec552ce905a/0_34_2873_1724/master/2873.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Forest have now matched their best start to a season since 1994‑95 as they came from behind after Jhon Durán’s third goal in a week for Aston Villa, who are winless in the last five league games that have followed Champions League matches. “It’s not an excuse,” Unai Emery, the Villa manager, said. “It’s another competition. Last year we played as well in the midweek [reaching the Europa Conference League final] and we got fourth [in the Premier League].”.
So Forest, celebrating their 5,000th league fixture, can claim fourth place in the here and now, at least until Manchester City play Manchester United on Sunday afternoon. Building on this season’s remarkable victories at Anfield and, last week, Old Trafford, Nuno has led them to eight league wins already this season. Last season, it took them until their 36th game.
The old City Ground was rocking to its foundations in the closing stages as, after a tight first period in which Nuno’s tactics helped negate Villa’s strengths, Forest’s spirit took them to new heights. Finishing in the top four may be another matter but they are there, above City, on merit for now. “Focus on the task that you have ahead of you,” Nuno said, “realising that we didn’t achieve nothing. Today is a big moment. Let’s enjoy it together: all the fans, players. Have a beer. But we know that Brentford is going be so tough. You just look at them at home, how many goals they score. So, I’m trying to now work on that. That is what’s more important, game by game.”.
