Aston Villa's Unai Emery respectful of old adversary Oliver Glasner and expects Austrian to develop Nottingham Forest

Unai Emery expects Nottingham Forest to be a tough nut to crack under old foe Oliver Glasner - just like the side he built at Crystal Palace.

Glasner is Emery’s bogey opposite number, as the Villa manager endured seven winless attempts against the new Forest chief during his time in charge at Selhurst Park.

The record features five defeats and two draws, including a 5-0 drubbing and a 3-0 FA Cup semi-final reverse at Wembley.

Emery’s latest crack at getting the better of the Austrian is at Villa Park on Saturday afternoon with Forest the visitors. The Villa boss believes Glasner can develop his new club in the same impressive style he achieved with the Eagles.

“He’s performing well in Germany too before this,” Emery said on Friday afternoon. “I respect him, massively, how he’s managing with his style.

“Setting the shape at Forest, it’s strong as it was with Palace.

“With Forest, the idea is clear he wants again to build this team. It’ll be difficult for us, but also for other teams.

“Against Liverpool, they drew, as they did with Tottenham. They performed well and could’ve won both matches.

“This is Glasner and Forest, and this is the challenge we have.”

Both Villa and Forest are yet to win in the Premier League this term, though Emery’s men are off the back of Tuesday’s 3-2 victory over Club Brugge in the Champions League.

Glasner’s side lost twice to Leeds in the opening week of the campaign, in league and Carabao Cup action, but responded with draws against Liverpool and Spurs.

Emery said: “Nottingham Forest and us know each other so well because we've played a lot in the Premier League and Europa League.

“There are going to be some (new) players involved for them and us. A new coach is trying to set his structures and ideas.

“The new coach has performed fantastic, he was brilliant at Crystal Palace before, and is a successful coach, who is very, very impressive and performing very well.

“I am expecting a very difficult match, 90 minutes playing consistently in our game plan and trying to improve things, adapt to them how we need to, respecting Nottingham Forest as a club and this coach.”

Emery was buoyed by how his side performed to win in Europe and wants his side to continue to show improvements in the Premier League, where the wait for a first goal and first win goes on.

“In the Premier League we are getting better, more or less playing with the same players with some changes,” he explained.

“Tyrone (Mings) and Pau (Torres) are clearly very important to us. Ross Barkley is sharing with Joao (Gomes, who remains suspended in the Premier League).

“Joao performed very fantastic in Bruges. Ross Barkley knows everything we want offensively and defensively.

“Tomorrow can be the next step forward, hopefully, we can show our improvements in the Premier League - with the result, and with how we played in the Champions League, with our game plan.

“Tomorrow is a new challenge, test, demand, opportunity for three points. This is the work, my objective and task.”