Villa silence the Amex- 26th February 2022
It was another frustrating day at the Amex stadium for Brighton. Coming off the back of a disappointing 3-0 loss to Burnley last week, today was a chance to correct their mistakes and get three points.
Goals from Matty Cash and Ollie Watkins meant that this was Aston Villa’s first league double in 40 years. Speaking on this result Steven Gerrard said, “ I thought we were really organised out of possession which was key to winning the game today”. Similar to Brighton his side have been having a tough time with only one win in five before today. Speaking on this he said “It’s always important u stay together and keep believing. If you keep doing the right things you’re bound to get a result.”
It was Neil Maupay’s 100th appearance for Brighton but a day for him to forget. The striker ,who has eight premier league goals and two assists this season was trying his best to get the better of Ezri Konsa and Tyrone Mings but his side struggled to carve any clear chances for him.
Brighton started well and were perhaps unfortunate to go 1-0 down as Graham Potter said, “Their goal came out from nothing but that can happen in football”. It took Just 18 minutes for Villa to go 1-0 up. A Lucas Digne cross was cleared and fell to Matty Cash on the edge of the box. The right back took a touch and smashed it into the bottom left corner. A strike his boss has replicated many a time in his Merseyside days.
It looked as though Brighton may equalise when Alexis Mac Allister crashed the ball onto the bar. However, Brighton failed to take advantage of their dominance in the game.
The seagulls had 65% possession and Villa had 35% but Gerrard’s men refused to let this take the wind out their sails as they saw out the half and went onto double their lead in the 68th minute. Tyrone Mings clipped a delicious ball over the top in which pacy striker Ollie Watkins ran onto and slotted past Robert Sanchez.
It was a fiery game and the importance to win and be competitive was shown by both sides. The ref handed out nine yellow cards in total. Gerrard, who is no stranger to a meaty challenge said “Yeah there were a lot of yellows but both sides wanted to win a football match. I don’t think any player overstepped the mark.”
With no win in their last three games Brighton turn to inform Newcastle. Potter believed there was an improvement in performance by his side as they were energetic and tried to the right things but lacked quality in the final third. He will be hoping they can reproduce some of the form they had at the start of the season.
