With a victory over relegation-threatened Nottingham Forest at Villa Park, in-form Aston Villa continued to fight for European football next season.
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Since Unai Emery came over, Villa has won 11 of 17 games, including their most recent victory.
The first half had been difficult for Emery’s team as they tried to establish themselves in the game and found Forest to be a match for them.
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Ollie Watkins’ close-range effort from Villa brought them the closest to breaking the score in the first quarter, but there weren’t many other opportunities.
Nonetheless, the hosts were able to score the game’s first goal with the utmost ease as Bertrand Traore curled the ball past Navas shortly after the restart after Jonjo Shelvey had cleared the ball into the path of the Villa player.
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In the last minute of extra time, Watkins scored the winning goal by chipping the ball into the goal after a one-two with Jacob Ramsey.
Forest is currently in 18th place and, based on goal differential, is in the relegation zone.
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With eight games left, Villa is six points behind Tottenham in fifth place.
