Villa win at Brighton with Dave Woodhall enjoying life.
Football’s an expensive hobby these days, particularly if you watch your team away. With the price of tickets, travel and in the case of midweek matches at least half a day off work, then with Christmas on the way you’re looking at your team to give, if not exactly good value, then at least something to remember. Or in the case of Wednesday’s trip to Brighton, a night never to forget.
It had hardly started out particularly. The mention of Villa not being able to score from inside the box might have been ridiculous but it could have put a bit of pressure on the team. Unai rotated the line-up again, with Youri Tielemans dropped, Evnann Guessand playing and Ollie Watkins coming up against opposition he’s done well against over the years. It seemed like the sort of team to contain Brighton in the early stages and then bring on the big hitters to win the game.
If that was the plan, it was thrown into confusion when Emiliano Martinez was injured in the warm-up and replacement Marco Bizot let a corner through his hands after eight minutes. One down and it was two twenty minutes later when a very Villaesque quick break saw a shot deflecting off Pau Torres to wrong-foot Bizot.
It seemed as though it would be a long way home with Villa looking poor and what few chances there were being wasted. Then eight minutes before half-time Ian Maatsen’s cross was scrambled in by Ollie Watkins for one of those close-range goals Vila don’t score, courtesy of a striker who doesn’t score either. Then with almost the last kick of the half, a long ball out from Morgan Rogers found Watkins, who saw off three defenders to equalise.
Unsurprisingly, Villa started the second half totally in control; on the hour a Matty Cash corner found Amadou Onana totally unmarked and able to put them into the lead with a close-range header. That was three goals from inside the penalty areas. I doubt it’ll cause much comment.
Substitutions were made, most notably Donyell Malen, who with almost his first touch finished off another goalmouth scramble with Villa’s fourth. There was still time for chances at both ends after that and a bit of a scare when some slack edge of the box marking allowed Brighton to get their second Villa-lite goal of the game. But that was the end of the night’s entertainment. The Villa defence finally did what they were paid to do for long enough to enable the final whistle to arrive without any more real excitement.
Yet again other results went our way and we go into Saturday’s clash with Arsenal in third place. No-one, absolutely no-one at all whatsoever, seriously thinks that Villa are title contenders. But, another performance like the final hour of this match and the top of the table will suddenly start to look a bit interesting. And the journey home from Brighton was a lot shorter than it might have been.
