Oliver Glasner's Nottingham Forest Defeats Unai Emery Again
Oliver Glasner walked out of Villa Park on Saturday with another win over Unai Emery – and a story that underlined exactly why his Nottingham Forest side are starting to look so stubborn, so awkward, so hard to put away.
Six wins and two draws. Eight games against Emery across his time at Crystal Palace and now Forest. No defeats.
He knows exactly how that sounds.
“I spoke to him before the game and told him that it was still 5-2 to him, in terms of European trophies won,” Glasner smiled afterwards. “I said to myself, ‘Oliver Glasner, stay humble’. I will stay that way. Every win is great, but I did not play one second today. The players deserve all the credit, because they did so well. Our fans deserve the credit, because they supported us. Now we will go home and have a lovely Saturday evening.”
Chaos on the eve of kick-off
The win, a gritty 2-1 at Villa Park sealed by goals from Liam Delap and Igor Jesus, came at the end of a build-up that looked like it might derail Forest before they had even boarded the coach.
By 9.30pm on Friday night, everything changed.
Scan results landed. Nikola Milenkovic and Jair Cunha were out, both with hamstring injuries picked up in the final training session. The defensive plan Glasner had worked on all week was shredded in an instant.
“We are pleased with the win, but much more pleased with the performance and most pleased with the resilience showed today,” he said. “It was 9.30pm when we got the result of scans that told us that Jair Cunha and Nikola could not play. I knocked at Ola and Ousmane’s door and told them they would be playing. I spoke with Ola a little bit about playing in the back three. I told him I think he can.”
No gentle easing in. No time to dwell. Just a late-night reshuffle, a new back line, and a trip to one of the toughest grounds in the league.
Murillo’s stand and Villa’s fall
Forest’s defensive depth was stretched to breaking point. It needed someone to hold the line. Murillo stepped forward.
The Brazilian defender had every excuse to sit this one out. His knees were troubling him in training. The medical advice would have been cautious. The fixture list is long.
He refused.
“I can tell you now that Murillo had some pain in his knees before the game, in training. But he said ‘no, Gaffer, I will play’,” Glasner revealed, a hint of pride cutting through his usual restraint.
That attitude mattered. With Villa finishing the match with ten men after Ian Maatsen went off injured, Forest’s back line – patched together, re-drawn on the fly – held firm enough for Delap and Igor Jesus to make the difference at the other end.
By the final whistle, Glasner’s personal record over Emery had another layer. Six wins, two draws. Still no defeat. A tactical rivalry tilting more heavily his way with every meeting, even if he keeps pointing at Emery’s European medals as the real scoreboard.
Eyes already on Coventry
The celebrations will roll on in Nottingham across the weekend, but Glasner’s attention has already shifted to the treatment room and the calendar.
Forest face Coventry City on September 19. Milenkovic will not be there.
“Nikola was a bit more serious and will miss the Coventry game,” Glasner confirmed. “We are hopeful that he will be back after the international break. We hope Jair could be back for the Coventry game. But we have to be cautious. Let’s see.”
So Forest move on with a statement win, a stretched squad, and a manager who keeps finding ways to outfox one of Europe’s most decorated coaches.
If this is what they look like under stress in September, what might they be playing for when the season reaches its sharp end?
