On the opening weekend of 2025, Forest beat Wolves 3-0 to consolidate their position in the Premier League’s top three.
That was a sixth straight win, something the club had not achieved in the top flight in a single season since 1966-67, and they sat five points ahead of Newcastle in fifth.
Now, it is four straight defeats for the first time since November-December 2023 – a run which ended with Steve Cooper losing his job at the City Ground.
Dyche is already Forest’s third manager of the season and the SOS went to him in October after Ange Postecoglou’s brief and damaging reign.
The former Everton and Burnley boss started well, but the drop-off in organisation, focus and form – especially of late – has been drastic.
At Villa they were undone by simple errors: a collective switch-off to allow Ollie Watkins to open the scoring was followed by John Victor’s ill-advised foray 40 yards from goal which allowed John McGinn to add a killer third goal.
“You can’t give basic errors away to teams like this in the Premier League,” Dyche told BBC Match of the Day.
“The mentality is there, but you can’t keep giving yourself a mountain to climb. Players were switching off to the basics. We have worked on it and shown them, but this is the job. I never expected it to be easy when I got here.”
Until Watkins struck in first-half stoppage time, Forest’s plan was working, even if it was pragmatic in the extreme. Villa had been restricted to one chance – a golden one – when goalkeeper John denied Watkins early.
But Forest fell apart. McGinn scored the first of his two goals in the 49th minute to give high-flying Villa a handy 2-0 cushion.
Although Morgan Gibbs-White’s goal made it 2-1 and briefly gave Forest hope, there was little to suggest they would mount an improbable comeback.
Gibbs-White told Sky Sports: “I feel like we stuck to the gameplan in the first half. There were lots of positives to take. I know we need points, but we showed a work ethic and desire.
“We always know Villa start with a high press. So the key was to absorb that pressure and silence the fans a bit. We were unfortunate to concede right before half-time.”