Aston Villa 2-2 Brighton: Albion end strange 2024 with useful point
The curtain came down on 2024 for Brighton with a 2-2 draw at Aston Villa. There were mixed feelings over the result as whilst it was undoubtedly a useful point on the road, at the same time it stretched the Albion’s winless run to seven matches.
Such mixed feelings were apt at the end of a calendar year which has been both good and bad. It began with Seagulls supporters dreaming of what might be under Roberto De Zerbi. Lifting the FA Cup? Winning the Europa League? Qualifying for Europe again?
But De Zerbi cooked his goose only a couple of months into the year when publicly criticising the board for what he saw as a lack of investment in the playing squad.
Anybody who questions Tony Bloom and Paul Barber OBE in public does not last long. And so De Zerbi went at the end of the season after a disappointing final few months to the campaign. The man who led Brighton to heights not many thought possible dispensed with.
Bloom might not have liked De Zerbi saying what he did. But the Albion owner listened to it. Nearly £200 million worth of new signings were given to De Zerbi’s successor Fabian Hurzeler to play with. The aim being to establish Brighton as regular competitors in European football.
Hurzeler made a promising start. Seven games without a victory including five matches against opponents in the bottom half of the table has now though led to questions.
Is The Youngest Permanent Manager in Premier League History the right man for the job? Have Brighton got their recruitment right? Is Bloom’s famous algorithm broken?
Has it been a good 2024 for the Albion or not? Right now, it is hard to tell. We will probably need to wait until the end of the season to judge whether the biggest moment of the year – replacing De Zerbi with Hurzeler – was the correct decision.
Likewise, how much the expensively acquired array of talent have contributed over the entire 2024-25 campaign.
Whilst judgement is reserved over 2024, how about Aston Villa 2-2 Brighton? Your correspondent would lean more towards this being a good point at a tough venue where the Albion have an historically woeful record. Especially given the circumstances in which it was earned.
Like the owner of Fenton the dog in Richmond Park, Brighton have been terrible at holding onto leads this season. It looked like another was going to be blown at Villa Park, leaving the Albion with nothing after the hosts scored twice following Simon Adingra’s opener.
On this occasion, however, Brighton showed character to battle back. The sort of character which has been sorely lacking throughout December.
Tariq Lamptey provided an excellent leveller in the final 10 minutes to reward the travelling Seagulls support for their dedication in sitting in an away end, one section of which had no alcohol on sale. The things we do for love…
Joao Pedro probably fancied a stiff drink within 60 seconds of kick off to numb the pain from a nasty clash of heads. Pedro was left bleeding and required lengthy treatment whilst being bandaged up.
The eight minute delay caused by the incident did at least mean Brighton made it to 12 minutes after kick off without being 3-0 down; as happened in that horrific 6-1 defeat against Villa on their previous visit to this part of the world.
In fact, it was the Albion who took the lead with 12 on the clock. The Villa defence have a tendency to struggle with long balls over the top.
Somebody at Brighton must have therefore done their homework. Lewis Dunk sent a raking hoof 70 yards down the pitch. Pedro challenged, sparking chaos and confusion between the two home centre backs.
Simon Adingra took full advantage, nipping in from the left to collect the loose ball before beating Emiliano Martinez from outside the box.
Whoever could have predicted playing the King of AFCON on his stronger left side would result in a performance a million times better than anything he has served up on the right this season?
Brighton led for 24 minutes until Villa were awarded a soft penalty. Referee Craig Pawson should have pointed to the spot minutes earlier when Jan Paul van Hecke committed a foul on Morgan Rogers.
The Albion thought got away with it. At which point, the sensible thing is not do anything remotely close to committing another foul and giving the officials an opportunity to make up for their earlier error.
Pedro was the party who ended up catching Rogers whilst attempting to clear after Bart Verbruggen got in a mess trying to deal with a corner. Mr Pawson subsequently took the chance to even things up and Ollie Watkins converted the resulting penalty.
Watkins now has seven goals in his past seven matches against Brighton. Verbruggen in particular most be sick of the sight of him, Watkins having also fired England’s last minute Euro 2024 semi final winner past the Dutch number one in Dortmund six months ago.
Villa ended the first half well on top. Brighton needed to use the break to halt that momentum and regroup. They failed to do that as the home side moved 2-1 ahead just two minutes after the restart. Watkins chipped a ball over the top which Rogers ran onto and fired into the bottom corner.
Hurzeler has received a fair amount of criticism in recent weeks for some baffling substitutions. But he got his changes right in Villa 2-2 Brighton with Matt O’Riley and Kaoru Mitoma in particular injecting much-needed life into the Albion.
Pedro put a good chance to equalise wastefully over. Brighton kept plugging away and a magnificent passing move created the equaliser with eight minutes remaining.
Mitoma and Pedro were heavily involved towards the end of it, teeing up Lamptey for a blistering effort giving Martinez no chance.
Given recent events, it was no certainty that would earn Brighton a point. The Seagulls though held on for a result Hurzeler will be hoping proves the starting point for a turnaround in Albion form going into 2025.
