Achieving as many wins in their last three matches as they had managed in their previous 12 beforehand, Aston Villa took the lead twice at the Red Bull Arena in Tuesday’s meeting with Leipzig, and twice they were pegged back through Lois Openda and Christoph
Baumgartner.However, the third time was the charm for Unai Emery’s men, as Ross Barkley slipped when he let fly from distance in the 85th minute but saw his strike creep into the bottom corner to strengthen the Lions’ hopes of
automatic qualification for the last 16.A return to triumphant ways on the continent was the natural next step to a Premier League revival for Villa, who boast back-to-back wins against Southampton and Brentford from their most
recent pair of top-flight affairs; the 3-1 success over the Saints snapped a horrendous eight-game run without victory in any competition.Still very much in the mix for Champions League football amid their
renaissance, the Lions occupy sixth place in the Premier League rankings, only adrift of their upcoming foes on goal difference and within touching distance of champions-in-crisis Manchester City in the final Champions League spot
Also revelling in their own astonishing five-goal success on rival territory, Nottingham Forest’s trip to the Theatre of Dreams last weekend saw Santo’s men capitalise on the Red Devils’ error-strewn display, as the Forest coach won the battle of the Portuguese bosses with Ruben Amorim.Man United’s defence were only too
happy to gift out presents on Chris Wood’s birthday, as the New Zealand international’s 10th Premier League goal of the season – and record-breaking 25th in Forest colours – put the seal on an exceptional performance.Saturday’s
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triumph marked a major reversal in Mancunian fortunes for the Tricky Trees, who had been swept aside 3-0 by Manchester City only three days before, and they are keeping Villa out of the top five of the standings courtesy of a
marginally superior goal difference ahead of their City Ground showdown.Santo’s men will also be seeking a fourth win from five Premier League home games when the Lions come to
visit, and the hosts have kept clean sheets in all three of those successes, although they did come against bottom-half battlers in Crystal Palace, West Ham United and Ipswich Town.Nevertheless, Forest also kept Villa at bay
when they defeated the Lions 2-0 in this exact fixture 13 months ago, but Emery’s men exacted their revenge with a 4-2 triumph at Villa Park in February, where now-Juventus man Douglas Luiz conjured up a crucial brace.