Midfield star issues Aston Villa challenge after Champions League win

Tuesday night’s 3-2 Champions League win at RB Leipzig was Villa’s third in the space of six days and a season which had stalled during an eight-match winless run now has fresh momentum.

Midfielder Tielemans believes the calm head of manager Unai Emery was key to overcoming the first real blip of the Spaniard’s reign and says the team is now eager to push on further.

Saturday’s hosts Forest are one of the season’s surprise packages and sit fifth in the Premier League, above Villa on goal difference.

Tielemans said: “It (the blip) was always going to happen, it can’t just go in a straight line, always on the up. 

“You know you are going to have a dip at some point. But it’s how you react and the manager’s been first-class. 

“He hasn’t panicked. He hasn’t changed anything. He has just kept to his way of doing it. “Now, you can see that with three wins in a row, everyone is saying Villa is back up, so let’s keep going.

“You always have dips in the season and we need to keep working hard, stay calm and that’s what we have done. 

“We know our plan, we know how we want to play and the games we have won this week have been good. But we know we need to keep calm whenever we don’t win.”

Ross Barkley’s deflected winner five minutes from time earned Villa their fourth win in six Champions League matches and left them well placed to secure a top-eight finish in the group stage, which would see them progress straight through to the last-16.

Tielemans, who was named Uefa’s player of the match at the Red Bull Arena, admitted Emery’s men would have been frustrated not to win after dominating the match for large periods.

Villa, who returned to Europe’s elite competition for the first time in four decades this season next play at Monaco on January 21 before rounding off the group stage with a home clash against Celtic the following week. 

Asked if there was anything in the competition for them to fear, Tielemans replied: “I don’t think we need to go that far. 

“But listen, we know the competition is slightly different this season. When you are in a group stage, maybe you can slip and get it back later on but I think anything can change from one week to another. 

“We’ve seen that when we lost a game we were almost in the bottom half of the table, so now the fact we are up there is very positive. Hopefully, we can qualify (in the top eight).

“I felt that we played some really good football at times on Tuesday. We had good combinations and the goals we scored were really good. From my point of view, I thought we deserved the win.”

John McGinn had given Villa the perfect start when he fired them into a third minute lead but a defensive mix-up then allowed Lois Openda to equalise.

A stunning effort from Jhon Duran then put the visitors back in front but they were pegged back again thanks to a fine finish from Christoph Baumgartner before Barkley’s late winner.

Duran’s 25-yard strike was his 10th of the season in all competitions and Tielemans said: “He knows he’s got a decent shot on him. The keeper could have done better. But he tries, and he’s very confident. 

“He’s got another goal now. Coming on at half-time is never easy for a striker, either, he gave his all, he’s had a couple of chances where he could have done better and be a bit more composed but the fact he’s scoring is important for the team.”