Aston Villa racked up a sixth win in seven matches to climb to sixth in the Premier League and pile the pressure on Steve Cooper. The question now is how will Evangelos Marinakis respond to Nottingham Forest dropping into the relegation zone? Marinakis handed Cooper a new contract in October to dispel talk of him dismissing his manager when they were bottom of the table but it is difficult to envisage the Forest owner being quite so generous this time.
The substitute Bertrand Traoré, Villa’s hero at Leicester in midweek, opened the scoring before Ollie Watkins scored his ninth goal in 11 games to double Villa’s lead in second-half stoppage time and compound the misery for Cooper, who looked on glum-faced. By the time Watkins chipped in Cooper looked on forlornly from the touchline, clasping his jacket with his hands behind his back and it was impossible not to wonder whether Marinakis will ask him to fetch his coat.
Marinakis, who was not in attendance, made his feelings clear in the statement Forest released on Wednesday, which in effect issued Cooper a public ultimatum: improve results pronto or risk becoming the 13th Premier League manager to be sacked this season. Cooper’s failure to find a solution to their wretched away form could ultimately be his undoing; Forest have taken six points from a possible 45 on the road, the last of which came at Southampton in January.
These are teams heading in different directions: Forest returned to the bottom three after a ninth match without victory. Villa, watched on by Prince William and his son George, are foot to the pedal in pursuit of European football after winning four successive games and 11 of their 17 matches under Unai Emery. They have already eclipsed last season’s points tally with eight games to play. A section of Villa’s match-day programme is labelled Seasons in the Sun and despite making a dire start under Steven Gerrard, this could be another one to add to the list. “We started trying to escape off the bottom [of the table], we did it,” Emery said. “We tried to be in the top 10 and now we are there, and another target we can have is to go to Europe. We are going to think about being ambitious.”
Cooper gave the Forest supporters bathed in the spring sunshine a thumbs-up as he headed towards the away technical area but after successfully stifling Villa in the first half, his team pressed self-destruct three minutes into the second. Cooper said Marinakis need not have stressed the need for an uplift, hinting his owner’s comments were unhelpful, but there is no doubt the manager understands this result leaves him hanging to his job by a thread.
Ashley Young released Traoré, who escaped the attention of the Forest wing-back Harry Toffolo, down the right flank and the Villa substitute leathered a shot at goal. Keylor Navas pushed the ball to relative safety, or so the Forest goalkeeper thought. Rather than clearing the ball Jonjo Shelvey, fortunate to make it to half-time on only a yellow card, lazily gifted possession to Traoré, who could not believe his luck on the edge of the six-yard box. Traoré, who replaced the hamstrung Leon Bailey approaching the half-hour, pocketed the ball into the far corner. Shelvey, withdrawn in the second half, would later apologise to his teammates in the dressing room for his unedifying miscue.
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Cooper retreated to the dugout for a second viewing of the goal, which doubtless made grim viewing. Suddenly a previously flat home crowd had something to shout about and Forest were swimming against the tide.
A Forest comeback always seemed unlikely and things do not get much easier, with Manchester United up next before a trip to Liverpool. “We have to take it and take the negativity that comes with the position and do our best to sort it out,” Cooper said. “We have to believe that we can [stop the rot] because if we stop that then we’ve got no chance.”
Villa huffed and puffed until scoring and this was one of those days where the result trumped the performance. Alex Moreno was busy from left-back, Watkins selfless and Emi Buendía bright but Villa never looked like easing to victory, despite Forest finishing the game with 10 men after Moussa Niakhaté was forced off with injury. Forest showed glimmers of quality but have scored just five goals in their 15 away games. Danilo sent a wayward shot into the Holte End that led Cooper to urge calm. Quite how patient Marinakis is feeling will determine whether Cooper stays in post.
