'Building something special' - John McGinn enjoys double delight in Aston Villa win
John McGinn hopes to have got boss Unai Emery “off his back” after his double helped Villa down Nottingham Forest.
The skipper scored for the first time in three months and netted his first brace for the club since 2019 as Emery’s men made a winning start to 2026 and went second in the Premier League.
McGinn put his team 2-0 up early in the second half after Ollie Watkins had netted on his 250th appearance for the club.
And he then made the points safe by capitalising on a huge error by Forest keeper John Victor, after Morgan Gibbs-White had scored to reduce the deficit.
McGinn said: "The manager pushes us a lot and says I should be scoring a lot more goals.
“Thankfully I managed to get two goals today so hopefully he'll get off my back a bit! I saw the keeper out so I managed to get it round him and into the goal."
The win was Villa’s 18th in their last 21 matches in all competitions and their 11th in a row at home, their best run since 1990.
It was also the perfect response to the midweek 4-1 defeat at Arsenal which ended a club record-equalling 11-match winning run.
Watkins, who was denied by John Victor in the second minute, opened the scoring with a fierce 20-yard effort seconds before half-time.
McGinn then doubled the lead when he turned home Matty Cash’s cross but Gibbs-White threatened to make things interesting when he beat the offside trap and Emi Martinez.
Any tension then evaporated when John Victor came racing out of goal for a ball he was never going to win, with McGinn keeping his cool to fire into the empty net.
He said: "We're building something special here, breaking more records and becoming more complete as a team.
“Hopefully we can continue this run. Villa Park is a fortress at the moment. It’s an exciting time to be a Villa player and a Villa supporter. We just keep riding that wave.”
