Aston Villa Captain McGinn Says Club Is Building Something Special After Nottingham Forest Victory

Aston Villa move closer to the Premier League summit after a 3-1 home victory over Nottingham Forest extended their winning run at Villa Park to eight league games, as John McGinn hit a first Premier League brace and Ollie Watkins scored again to keep Unai Emery’s side within three points of leaders Arsenal.

The result deepens Forest’s problems near the bottom, with Sean Dyche’s team slipping to a fourth successive league defeat and staying 17th, only four points clear of the relegation places, after costly defensive mistakes from Elliot Anderson and John Victor allowed Aston Villa to take full control of the contest.

Villa’s current sequence of eight straight home league wins is now the club’s second-longest such run in Premier League history,

bettered only by the 15-match streak put together between March and December 2023, also under Unai Emery, and that consistency has carried Villa into the title conversation as Arsenal prepare to face Bournemouth later on 3 January 2026.

Watkins opened the scoring with a composed finish, giving the forward four league goals in three matches, while McGinn added two more, with the captain’s double marking the first time McGinn has scored twice in a single Premier League game, underlining the midfielder’s growing attacking influence from central areas for Aston Villa.

Fixture	Score	Villa scorers	Forest position	Villa home league wins in a row
Aston Villa vs Nottingham Forest	3-1	John McGinn (2), Ollie Watkins	17th	8

McGinn stressed the wider meaning of the win for Aston Villa’s season and long-term plans, saying: "We're building something special here, breaking more records and becoming more complete as a team," McGinn told BBC Match of the Day.

Back to winning ways pic.twitter.com/124GvBCJMeAston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) January 3, 2026

Speaking about the current run at Villa Park and the mood around the club, McGinn added: "Hopefully we can continue this run. Villa Park is a fortress at the moment. Exciting time to be a Villa player and a Villa supporter. We just keep riding that wave. "

McGinn also discussed Emery’s demands and his own finishing, explaining: "The manager pushes us a lot and says I should be scoring a lot more goals. Thankfully I managed to get two goals today so hopefully he'll get off my back a bit! I saw the keeper out so I managed to get it round him and into the goal. "

While Aston Villa celebrated, Forest’s performance split into two clear parts, with Dyche satisfied with long spells before the decisive lapses at the back, and the Forest manager underlined his frustration at individual mistakes that turned a competitive match against Aston Villa into another damaging Nottingham Forest defeat.

Assessing Nottingham Forest’s display against Aston Villa, Dyche said: "Very frustrating for us. We delivered the first half as I wished they would until the last moment of truth. Credit to them, really good turn and finish," said Dyche. "The second goal was a basic mistake and we could have defended better. We scored a very good goal and then gave away another poor goal. You can't give basic errors away to teams like this in the Premier League. The mentality is there but you can't keep giving yourself a mountain to climb. Players were switching off to the basics, we have worked on it and shown them but this is the job. I never expected it to be easy when I got here. "

The outcome keeps Aston Villa firmly in touch with Arsenal at the top and maintains Villa Park’s status as a difficult venue, while Nottingham Forest leave Birmingham still searching for a response to a four-game losing streak and needing to cut out repeated defensive errors to move away from the relegation fight.