Gut Reactions: Villa Beaten by Brighton

That was a penalty.
Villa were the better team in this game and had no right to lose it, but sloppy passes in the final third, finishing and defending cost them today.
Lamptey up against our left side was a big problem with Grealish not supporting Targett. Smith ended up moving Trezeguet over there in the second half to provide more help.
This wasn’t the kind of game Villa could afford to fall behind in, let alone do it twice. Brighton packed their defence with big bodies making it hard to get through and were dangerous on the counter.
Traore showed nice flashes of quality including his assist.
Trezeguet HAS to score that open goal. It’s a shame because his general performance was good. He needs to stop trying to break the net with every shot though.
There was some impatience and not enough movement from Villa in the second half.
Watkins did well against the Land of the Giants in the Brighton defence.
Mings was below par today.
This Villa side are going to struggle if they fall behind because the gap between the starting 11 and the bench is stark.
That said, El Ghazi put some good crosses in after coming on but no-one was anywhere near them.
Extremely annoying loss and three defeats in the last four isn’t ideal, but this Villa team is still going places.
UTV