The Villa Park faithful was treated to two goals in two minutes early in the first half, with Morgan Rogers and Donyell Malen putting the hosts 2-0 up inside 15 minutes.

The former ghosted in behind Forest's defence to meet Youri Tielemans's lofted pass, while Malen fired Ian Maatsen's cross past Matz Sels from close range.

A much-improved second-half performance from Forest saw half-time substitute Jota Silva halve the deficit after he neatly turned Villa's defence to pick out the bottom corner.

Forest's pressure did not turn into a late equaliser, though, with Elliot Anderson curling an effort just wide of the post, while Murillo struck the crossbar with a powerful effort in stoppage-time.

Villa extended its winning streak to seven games in all competitions despite missing late chances, with Marco Asensio and Tielemans denied by Sels, who did brilliantly to smother Marcus Rashford's strike before clawing away the rebound.

Unai Emery's side moved up to sixth, level on points with Manchester City, which faces Manchester United on Monday (AEST), while Forest remains third, missing the chance to close the gap to Arsenal.