De Zerbi aiming to end Brighton woes versus Villa
Forget taking the Albion into Europe, being the top scorers in the Premier League or playing one of the best styles of football in the world. Do you know what would really mark Roberto De Zerbi out as a managerial marvel? Brighton beating Aston Villa.
The Seagulls have an utterly woeful record against the claret and blue half of the second city. One that not even De Zerbi has been able to overwrite yet, with Unai Emery’s side being the only team who inflicted a league double on Brighton last season.
(For the purposes of this preview and just the general sanity of Albion fans, we are ignoring Spurs because the away game at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was the sort of farce which can induce PTSD).
Just once since Maggie Thatcher was on the throne have Brighton beaten Villa… and even then nobody was there to see it.
Graham Potter oversaw a 2-1 win at Villa Park in November 2020 with a rare Solly March goal providing what proved to be the winner.
We say rare, because it would be more than two years before he scored in the Premier League again, only once Glow Up and the rest had slithered off to Stamford Bridge and De Zerbi taken over at the Amex, rewriting the rules of what we thought possible.
All the rules except the one that says the Albion cannot beat Villa, of course. The straw to clutch to is that excuses can be made for both of those defeats in 2022-23.
At the Amex in the final game before the winter break for the World Cup, De Zerbi was still relatively new to the role.
Brighton were getting used to his unique style of play and were a long way from the sort of performances and results we saw post-Christmas.
Villa could also count on Danny Ings, so often the Albion’s kryptonite. Ings scored both the goals as Emery celebrated his first away game in charge with three points.
Then to Villa Park on the final day of the campaign. Brighton had already guaranteed themselves sixth spot and Europa League football.
De Zerbi would never allow a team he manages to ease up, yet you still got the sense that the Albion were treating it as a combination of a farewell game for Alexis Mac Allister whilst already thinking about their summer holidays.
Villa in contrast needed three points to secure their own continental participation in 2023-24 via the Europa League at the expense of Spurs.
Given the way in which the match officials had royally screwed Brighton over a month early in North London (last mention of that Tottenham game, promise), a fair few Albion fans were secretly hoping Villa would get the result they needed to leave Spurs in eighth.
Aston Villa 2-1 Brighton duly ensured that happened. Both Villa and the Albion therefore gate crashed the top seven spots, two unfashionable clubs taking European places. No wonder the European Super League Elite Six wanted their own closed shop competition.
Brighton should in theory therefore provide a much sterner test for Villa than they have on those two previous occasions. There is also the small matter of the Albion always tending to bounce back from defeat with victory in their next game.
Elimination from the Carabao Cup at the hands of Chelsea on Wednesday night will no doubt have De Zerbi demanding a reaction from his players.
But Villa themselves are no walkovers. Emery did almost as good a job following his appointment to the hot seat as De Zerbi at the Amex, the Spaniard transforming Villa from relegation candidates to the seventh best team in the Premier League.
That has continued into the current campaign. Just three points and three places separate Brighton in third with Villa in sixth. The Villains have lost twice in the Premier League so far and both those defeats came on the road.
Their games also tend to feature a ridiculous number of goals. A 5-1 defeat against the Saudi Sportswashers on the opening day was followed by a 4-0 home win over Everton.
Villa won 3-1 at Burnley, lost 3-0 to Liverpool, beat Crystal Palace 3-1 and then picked up a 1-0 win away against Chelsea. Dull in comparison, but nonetheless impressive.
In Europe, Villa hit eight past Hibernian in two games (LOL at the standard of the Scottish Pub League) and then lost a five-goal thriller 3-2 to Legia Warsaw.
At risk of jinxing it and inflicting a boring 0-0 draw on everyone making their way to Birmingham for a lunchtime kick off on a day when there are no trains, goals look guaranteed at Villa Park.
The only question is will the result go in the Albion’s favour? If it does and Brighton return with three points from opposition they beat once every 40 years, it will be time to get very excited about what the rest of the season has in store.
