Aston Villa manager Unai Emery admitted Nottingham Forest “deserved” to win the Midlands derby after his side “lost control” at the City Ground on Saturday night.
Jhon Durán put the visitors ahead after 62 minutes with a headed finish, but that was cancelled out by Nikola Milenkovic, who equalised with a header of his own.
Impact substitute Anthony Elanga stunned the Villans in stoppage time when he tapped home for the winner to send Forest into the top four of the Premier League.
“We played 90 minutes more or less as we planned,” Emery told Sky Sports. “In the first 70 minutes, we were controlling and kept the ball possession.
“Nottingham Forest are very aggressive in attack. We lost the control completely in the final 20 minutes because they started pushing more and made some changes.
“We had to be consistent with the ball. We had to keep the possession and should have tried to attack and score the second goal.
“But of course it is a process. We are in a process. We will analyse the first 70 minutes and also the last 20 minutes and where we have improve the team is very clear to me.”
Villa were denied a penalty in the first half when referee Samuel Barrott waved away appeals for a foul on Morgan Rogers. The attacker was pulled back by Elliot Anderson in the box, but Emery refused to use the incident as an excuse for the defeat.
Unai Emery admits Forest ‘deserved’ to beat Aston Villa
“I can’t tell something about the referee and the penalty,” he said. “It’s again how we played and how we continue doing the process.
“It’s a tough match and they are now ahead of us. They have 28 points. It was a very good test against a team comfortable and strong. They deserved in the last 20 minutes to come back and get the result.”
Villa sit sixth in the Premier League table on 25 points, having won two of their last five games in the competition.
