Nottingham Forest 1-1 Aston Villa: Williams moves Pereira´s side three clear of relegation zone

Nottingham Forest moved three points clear of the Premier League relegation zone after holding top-four chasers Aston Villa to a 1-1 draw.

Vitor Pereira’s side made it four league games unbeaten, climbing up to 16th in the table, and added further breathing room between them and 18th-placed Tottenham, who lost 1-0 at Sunderland on Sunday.

Forest did suffer an early blow at the City Ground when Murillo’s own goal sent Unai Emery’s visitors ahead, after the Brazilian inadvertently turned home Morgan Rogers’ wicked left-sided cross 23 minutes in.

Rogers then struck the crossbar after a fine pass from John McGinn, only for Neco Williams to respond two seven minutes before half-time when fizzing into the bottom-left corner from 18 yards out.

Chances remained at a premium until the hour mark, when Marco Bizot expertly kicked away Morgan Gibbs-White’s deflected effort, before McGinn forced a fine stretching stop from Matz Sels.

Rogers then blazed over after Sels split Ross Barkley’s delivery before Ollie Watkins spurned another glorious chance to win it, leaving Villa to rue a missed opportunity.

It finishes level. pic.twitter.com/NYRkoYuseT

— Nottingham Forest (@NFFC) April 12, 2026

Data Debrief: Wonderful Williams

Williams has now been directly involved in three goals in his last two Premier League games (one goal, two assists), more than in his previous 32 outings combined (two).

The Wales full-back also managed a game-leading four shots, with three of those making up a large part of Forest’s four shots on target in total.

But the draw did continue a concerning run for Forest, who are winless in eight home league games (D4 L4).

Pereira will still feel his side deserved, at least, a point after accumulating 1.2 expected goals (xG) to Villa’s 0.98 in a hard-fought encounter.