Igor Jesus Scores 88th-Minute Winner as Nottingham Forest Beat Aston Villa 2-1 at Villa Park

Substitute Igor Jesus struck in the 88th minute to hand Nottingham Forest a 2-1 victory over Aston Villa at Villa Park on Saturday, September 12, 2026, leaving Unai Emery‘s side winless through four Premier League matches in the worst start to a top-flight campaign the club has endured in 28 years. The result also gave new Forest manager Oliver Glasner his first Premier League win since taking charge of the club.

Liam Delap had broken the deadlock 45 seconds into the second half with a thunderous long-range strike before Alysson headed Villa level in the 74th minute. But a controversial tackle by James McAtee on Ian Maatsen in the 80th minute — which left the left-back unable to continue after Villa had already used all five substitutions — proved a pivotal moment. Igor Jesus then converted a Morgan Gibbs-White assist two minutes from time to seal all three points for the visitors.

Emery Fumes Over McAtee Tackle: ‘It’s a Red Card’

The decisive flashpoint arrived in the 80th minute when Forest midfielder James McAtee went through the back of Ian Maatsen in a challenge that left the Villa left-back writhing on the turf. Referee Jarred Gillett showed only a yellow card, and VAR official James Bell chose not to intervene — a decision that drew furious criticism from Emery in his post-match press conference.

“We corrected it and in that moment maybe we should keep the same way we were, but we couldn’t,” Emery told Sky Sports. “The injury of Ian Maatsen was a key moment because the tackle was strong. And we were finishing the last 15 minutes with one player less for one tackle and they were playing with 11.”

The Spaniard did not hold back on the officials. “For me, VAR should be there. I think it’s a red card,” Emery said. “If I was in the VAR and I was a referee, it was a red card.”

Emery expanded on the incident in further comments, as reported by The Athletic: “After reviewing the footage, I believe the VAR official should have alerted the referee, as it was a clear tackle from behind on Maatsen. In my opinion, it warranted a red card, which would have changed the dynamics of the match.”

The Premier League’s Key Match Incidents (KMI) Panel subsequently voted 5-0, according to the BBC, that Gillett had made an on-field error and that Bell had missed the intervention at the VAR monitor — a ruling that vindicated Emery’s complaints but offered no consolation in the standings.

How the Match Unfolded at Villa Park

A crowd of 36,714 at Villa Park saw a cagey first half in which neither side could find the net. Emery acknowledged that the opening 45 minutes went largely to plan. “We played the first half like we planned, we dominate, we didn’t concede so much,” the Villa boss told Sky Sports. “We didn’t score, but we were playing in the way we wanted.”

Forest shattered that control almost immediately after the restart. Just 45 seconds into the second half, Liam Delap collected the ball approximately 25 yards from goal and unleashed a thunderous strike that flew past the Villa goalkeeper. It was the 23-year-old’s first goal in a Nottingham Forest shirt, assisted by centre-back Murillo, and it instantly shifted the momentum of the contest.

Villa searched for an equalizer and found one in the 74th minute when John McGinn delivered a cross from the right and Alysson met it with a neat flick header to level the scores at 1-1. It was Villa’s first Premier League goal of the entire 2026-27 season — a drought that had stretched across more than 300 minutes of football.

The game appeared headed for a draw until the McAtee-Maatsen incident effectively reduced Villa to ten men. With the hosts unable to make any further changes, Forest seized the initiative. In the 88th minute, Morgan Gibbs-White orchestrated a quick break and slid the ball through to Igor Jesus, who had been introduced as a substitute earlier in the second half. The Brazilian forward finished coolly to send the traveling supporters into raptures and condemn Villa to another defeat.

Match Summary: Aston Villa 1-2 Nottingham Forest

Igor Jesus: ‘We Know How Important This Is for Us’

The match-winner was understandably elated after securing Forest’s first three points of the campaign. “It’s our first win in the Premier League this season and we know how important it is for us,” Igor Jesus told the BBC after the final whistle. “It’s very important for us and we need to keep it going. I just want to say thank you to everyone who came to support us today.”

The 24-year-old Brazilian’s decisive intervention came from a classic poacher’s instinct. Gibbs-White, who has been one of Forest’s most creative forces since joining the club, threaded the ball into the box and Igor Jesus applied the finishing touch with composure. It was the kind of clinical moment that underlines why Forest invested in the former Botafogo forward and why Glasner trusted him to make an impact from the bench.

Glasner Earns First Premier League Win

For Oliver Glasner, the victory represented a significant milestone. The Austrian manager, who took charge of Nottingham Forest ahead of the 2026-27 season, had overseen two draws and a defeat in his first three Premier League matches. This was the statement result he needed — particularly given the manner of the late victory.

In his pre-match press conference, Glasner had spoken about the squad depth at his disposal. “We have plenty of options which is positive, the new players are doing well and we can see they’re training well every week,” Glasner said, according to the BBC. That depth was evident on the day: both of Forest’s goalscorers — Delap with his debut strike and Igor Jesus from the bench — proved that Glasner’s rotation policy can deliver results at the highest level.

Forest moved up to five points from their opening four matches, a considerable improvement on the two points they held before kickoff. In a competitive Premier League landscape, an early-season away victory at a ground like Villa Park sends a strong message about Glasner’s ability to organize a resilient, counter-attacking side capable of punishing opponents in the closing stages.

Villa’s Worst Premier League Start in 28 Years

For Aston Villa, the picture could hardly be bleaker. The defeat to Forest confirmed that Emery’s side have made their worst start to a Premier League season in 28 years, a statistic that carries echoes of far darker chapters in the club’s recent history. After four matches, Villa remain rooted near the bottom of the table, having failed to win any of their opening fixtures.

The goal drought that preceded Alysson’s 74th-minute header was particularly alarming. Villa had gone more than 300 minutes of Premier League football without finding the net before the Brazilian forward’s intervention — a staggering record for a club that finished in the top half of the table last season and competed in European competition.

What makes this slump so bewildering is that Emery transformed Villa into genuine contenders during his first seasons in charge. The Spaniard guided the club into European football and built a squad that competed on multiple fronts. Yet the early weeks of 2026-27 have seen that progress unravel at an alarming pace, with defensive fragility and a lack of cutting edge in the final third combining to create a perfect storm of underperformance.

Emery Refuses to Use VAR as an Excuse

To his credit, Emery was careful not to blame the result entirely on the officials. While he was forthright in his criticism of the VAR decision, he also acknowledged that his team’s second-half performance was not good enough to earn points.

“It should have been a red card, and maybe finishing with 10 versus 10, maybe it would have been a different match, but it’s not an excuse for how we played the second half,” Emery said, according to reports from The Athletic and Goal.com. The Villa manager recognized that Forest “deserved it” based on how they played the second period.

That honesty, while admirable, only deepens the sense of crisis at Villa Park. When a manager admits his team was outplayed in the second half of a home match against a side that had themselves struggled in the opening weeks of the season, it suggests systemic issues that go beyond a single refereeing controversy. Villa need to address their second-half vulnerability — they have repeatedly faded after the break this season — and find a way to impose themselves on matches for the full 90 minutes.

Liam Delap’s Spectacular Opener

While Igor Jesus grabbed the headlines with his late winner, Liam Delap’s opening goal deserves significant recognition. The striker, who joined Forest as part of Glasner’s summer rebuild, announced his arrival in emphatic fashion. His goal just 45 seconds after the interval — a fierce long-range drive that gave the Villa goalkeeper no chance — was the kind of moment that can define a player’s early relationship with a new set of supporters.

Delap, who is the son of former Stoke City midfielder Rory Delap — famous for his extraordinary long throws that terrorized Premier League defenses throughout the 2000s — has carved out his own reputation as a direct, powerful forward. His willingness to shoot from distance paid dividends at Villa Park, and the goal, assisted by defender Murillo, showed the kind of tactical variety that Glasner is looking to build into his Forest side.

For Forest fans, Delap’s goal was a welcome sign that the club’s attacking investment is beginning to bear fruit. Combined with Igor Jesus’s impact from the bench, Glasner appears to have assembled a forward line capable of hurting opponents in different ways — whether through long-range shooting, pace on the counter, or clinical finishing in the box.

The Bigger Picture: Where Do Both Clubs Go from Here?

The result leaves the two clubs heading in markedly different directions as the Premier League season begins to take shape. Forest’s five points from four matches represent a solid platform from which Glasner can build. The Austrian’s emphasis on defensive organization and clinical counter-attacking football appears well suited to the Premier League, and the squad depth he highlighted before the match gives him options to manage the demands of a long season.

For Villa, the international break that follows this weekend cannot come soon enough. Emery needs time on the training ground to address the glaring issues that have plagued his team’s opening month. The defensive solidity that characterized his best work at Villa Park has evaporated, and the attack — despite the arrival of new signings — has been alarmingly blunt. The fact that Alysson’s header against Forest was the club’s first Premier League goal of the campaign tells its own story.

There is historical precedent for slow starters eventually recovering. Villa themselves made a similarly poor start to the 2025-26 season, finishing with just two points and no goals from their opening four matches, before turning their campaign around. Emery will hope history can repeat itself, but the pressure is mounting, and patience in modern football is a finite resource. The next run of fixtures will be critical in determining whether this is a temporary blip or the beginning of a genuine crisis at one of England’s most storied clubs.

What to Watch Next

Villa’s next Premier League fixture comes against Tottenham Hotspur on September 19, a match that could prove defining for Emery’s tenure. A fifth match without a win would intensify the scrutiny on the Spaniard and potentially trigger conversations about his future at the club. Villa also have a League Cup tie against Coventry City on September 16, which could offer an opportunity to build some confidence before the trip to north London.

Forest, meanwhile, will look to carry the momentum from their Villa Park triumph into the coming weeks. Glasner’s side have shown resilience and character, and with Igor Jesus and Delap providing the goals, there are genuine reasons for optimism at the City Ground. The question now is whether they can maintain this level of performance consistently and establish themselves as a mid-table force — or even push for something more ambitious — as the season progresses.

The KMI Panel’s unanimous ruling on the McAtee tackle will also add fuel to the ongoing debate about VAR’s effectiveness in the Premier League. If the system’s purpose is to correct clear and obvious errors, Emery will ask, then why did it fail to do so in a match-defining moment? It is a question that extends far beyond Villa Park and speaks to broader concerns about the consistency and reliability of officiating technology in English football.

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Sources

• Aston Villa 1 – 2 N Forest – Match Report & Highlights — skysports.com
• reported by The Athletic — nytimes.com
• voted 5-0, according to the BBC — bbc.com
• Villa 1-2 Nottingham Forest. Unai Emery’s side remain winless after Forest defeat — bbc.com
• Aston Villa 1-2 Nottm Forest (Sep 12, 2026) Game Analysis — espn.com

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