Aston Villa 1-2 Brighton: History made against Oscar-contenders Villa

Give that man an Oscar. Or be to more precise, give those 11 Aston Villa men plus their manager Dean Smith an Oscar for their wonderful display of theatrics in losing 1-2 against Brighton & Hove Albion.

Jack Grealish gave a performance of Daniel Day-Lewis proportions in throwing himself to the ground every two minutes. The golden boy of English football Grealish might be currently, but his talents in the field of thespianism excel what he can do on the pitch.

Trézéguet was like a young Willem Dafoe in Platoon when he went down as if hit by a sniper positioned on the roof of the Holte End in the final seconds to win Villa a penalty.

It nearly worked too. Solly March had just about managed to nick the ball with a tackle in the area but referee Michael Oliver was conned by Trézéguet’s dive and pointed to the spot.

Mr Oliver was then advised to consult his pitch side monitor, realised that he had mistake and overturned his decision.

A classic example of these things balancing themselves out over the course of the season, as this was a complete reversal of the incident at the end of the 3-2 defeat to Manchester United when the Red Devils received a last minute penalty after a VAR intervention. VAR cost Brighton a point that day; it earned them two at Villa Park.

And then there was Smith, who gave a superb post-match interview in which he nearly managed to convince the world that Villa had been very hard done by. Nearly, but not quite.

Smith said that the penalty should have stood by saying: “I don’t know what a penalty is now. We could all hear the contact inside the ground.”

Well, Dean, football is a contact sport and therefore the chances are that you will hear contact from time to time. What matters is if March won the ball legally, which he very did.

The Villa manager then did well to keep a straight face when complaining that VAR had cost his side a point. Somebody really should remind him that the only reason Villa are a Premier League club is because somebody forgot to turn on the goal line technology during their game with Sheffield United last season, denying the Blades were a very clear goal and giving Villa the point which kept them above Plucky Little Bournemouth.

All that drama at the end was in keeping with a ridiculously entertaining 90 minutes in which things finally went the Albion’s way. The result was the least Brighton deserved and it wrote a small piece of history for Graham Potter’s side as the first Seagulls team to ever win at Villa Park.

Aston Villa 1-2 Brighton was also a reminder that for all the stock Potter places on possession, it is not that important to have loads of the ball. What counts is what you do with it.

For the first time in nine Premier League game this season, Brighton had under 50% possession. The Albion had only seven shots compared to Villa’s 15, three on target against four for the hosts and Villa racked up 12 corners, Brighton three.

The difference between Brighton winning at Villa Park and failing to beat the likes of West Bromwich Albion and Burnley at home is that 66% of their attempts in the second city which were on target beat Emiliano Martínez. Which brings us nicely onto the contribution of Danny Welbeck.

When the Albion picked up Dat Guy Welbz last month, we were excited. Yes, he has had his fair share of injury problems over recent seasons but if Brighton could get him fit then here was a striker with a proven Premier League track record and who was hovering around the age of 30.

Because he has been around for so long, people often think of him as a grizzled veteran. Actually, he could have several more years at the top level and signing him on a free transfer to a one year contract looked like a risk free investment. Especially as he still possesses his pace.

If it works out, Welbeck gets the goals which (hopefully) push the Albion away from the relegation zone. If it doesn’t, he gets released at the end of the year and it is back to the striker drawing board for the Brighton recruitment team.

Welbeck opened his account with the first goal of Aston Villa 1-2 Brighton and what a finish it was. Adam Lallana released him on halfway with Welbeck latching onto the through ball, travelling 40 metres up the pitch with it and then producing a beautiful little chip over Martinez.

No other Brighton player would have been able to do something like that. Just thinking about Maupay going through one-on-one in the same scenario brings you out in a cold sweat with flashbacks to that shocking miss away at Crystal Palace.

Welbeck’s ice cool demeanour in front of goal is exactly what this Albion team who create so many chances need. If he can stay fit and firing and Lallana, Pascal Gross and the rest keep presenting him with those sorts of opportunities, then it will look like an inspired signing come the end of the season.

We mention Gross there because he is in danger of re-establishing himself as a first team regular and once again quietening his many doubters.

When the team was announced, there was a predictable chorus of “wHy iS PaSCaL grOsS pLayING hE iS SlOw aNd rUBbIsH” from a pretty vocal proportion of Seagulls supporters.

The Gross hate is something that we will never understand here at WAB; yes, he may not be the quickest player in the world but he is intelligent, graceful and can pick a pass and deliver a cross like nobody else.

All of which came to the fore with his role in the Albion’s second goal. The build up was a delightful passing move which eventually found Gross on the right hand side of the penalty area.

He spotted a gap in the Villa defence and stroked the perfect ball low and hard across goal into the path of Solly March who curled a scrumptious right footed effort into the top corner.

March now has two goals in his past six Premier League games after managing just two in the three previous seasons. The March for England campaign gathers pace.

Gross’ assist meanwhile means that he overtakes Glenn Murray as the player with most goal involvements since the Albion joined the top flight in 2017, 12 goals and 17 assists moving him onto 29.

March’s goal seemed to make Villa less threatening throughout the final 30 minutes. Beforehand, they had been pretty dominant and it took some inspired goalkeeping from Maty Ryan and one brilliant piece of defending in particular from Ben White to prevent them adding to their solitary goal.

Needless to say, that goal again came from a set piece as Brighton failed to clear their lines and Ezri Konsa scrambled home. When Potter talks about learning after every game, he does not appear to be paying much attention to what is happening from corners and free kicks as every week we seem to concede from such a scenario. A little more work on the training ground would not go amiss, Graham.

The only other negatives on an historic afternoon for Brighton were a late red card for Tariq Lamptey and Adam Lallana limping off with a groin injury at half time.

Rather than make a straight swap with Steve Alzate, Potter decided to play positional roulette following Lallana’s forced withdrawal. White moved into midfield and Joel Veltman came in at centre back, a merry-go-round that had shades of last season’s meeting between Brighton and Villa at the Amex.

On that occasion, Potter hauled Aaron Connolly and introduced Martin Montoya at right back. Alzate moved into midfield having marked Grealish out of the game and Aaron Mooy was pushed up front alongside Neal Maupay. Within seven minutes of all this fiddling, Grealish escaped Montoya to find an equaliser for the visitors.

Konsa’s goal at Villa Park came just two minutes after Potter’s adjustments. It looked like history was repeating itself at that point and an unnecessary number of adjustments from the manager was going to cost the Albion dear.

Thankfully, Brighton went onto find a winner this time; nor did we have to relive last season’s away fixture when Matt Targett snatched a winner for Villa right at the death. This time, the drama went the Albion’s way thanks to Mr Oliver and VAR.

Smith’s final comments to round off his Oscar-nominated performance following Aston Villa 1-2 Brighton were: “I thought we had control of the game and if we had taken our chances we would have won.”

Welcome to our world over the previous eight games of the season, Dean. Hopefully, no more.