Farewell football for six weeks: Brighton 1-2 Aston Villa photos
The final set of Albion Premier League photos before the World Cup interrupts the 2022-23 season come from a disappointing afternoon at the Amex, where the final score was Brighton 1-2 Aston Villa.
Brighton have not beaten Villa in a home match since 1980. They were offered absolutely no assistance in breaking that run by either referee Chris Kavanagh or the man watching replays in Stockley Park, Jarred Gillett.
With Villa leading 2-1, Solly March was denied what appeared a blatant penalty by both Mr Kavanagh and Mr Gillett. March had his ankle nearly kicked clean off by Lucas Digne, which somehow neither of the highly paid officials watching deemed a foul.
That was the cherry on top of a cake of terrible decisions made by Mr Kavanagh. He allowed Villa to get away with playacting, time wasting and racking up seven bookings across the 90 minutes. It was about as pretty to watch as diarrhea.
Not that Brighton deserved much from the game. After the thrilling wins over Arsenal and Wolves and the humiliation of Graham Potter and Chelsea, this was a poor performance aside from the quick start the Albion made.
Alexis Mac Allister gave Brighton the lead inside of 60 seconds with the fastest goal the Albion have managed in the Premier League, robbing Douglas Luiz and clinically finishing.
Adam Lallana limping off with five minutes played proved to be a serious blow made doubly problematic by Roberto De Zerbi opting to introduce the inexperienced Julio Enciso rather than Billy Gilmour or Joel Veltman.
Brighton were loose in possession without Lallana and never able to get into the fast passing rhythm which has characterised the De Zerbi era so far.
Lewis Dunk gave away a silly penalty which Danny Ings converted to pull Villa level going into half time. Ings then scored nine minutes after the restart to complete the turnaround and send Villa home from Sussex with three points… again.
If you have any photos you would like included in our Brighton 1-2 Aston Villa gallery, please e-mail them to wearebrighton@hotmail.co.uk or tweet them to us @wearebrighton
