Villa losing at Brighton isn’t the only thing annoying Dave Woodhall.
It doesn’t seem all that long since the final match of last season. The sun shone and Villa beat Manchester City on an afternoon when our vanquished foes said farewell to a couple of their team. We didn’t know it, but a few of our players were never to be seen again, either.
Injuries, transfers and what seems a refusal to play meant that Villa’s team at Brighton was a lot different to the one that blazed such a trail as 2025-26 came to such a wonderful conclusion. We can only hope that it’ll be a lot different to the side Unai can pick at the end of the month as well.
Emiliano Buendia has shown himself to be many things but he isn’t a lone striker, or much of a goalscoring striker at all, even though he almost gave Villa the lead in the opening minutes. And that was as good as it got. It was noticeable that Victor Lindelof was preferred to Tyrone Mings in the starting line-up, but he might have wished Unai hadn’t made the decision when he inadvertently scored an own goal after eight minutes.
Equally, Joao Gomes had been a surprise selection and an injury doubt being available may have raised hopes that Villa’s perennial ill-luck on that score might have changed. Gomes promptly got booked, gave away the ball for Brighton’s fourth goal and was then sent off for retaliation. I’ve seen new signings have great debuts and promptly disappear without a trace – let’s hope that the reverse is true in this case.
In his defence Gomes had shown a few good touches and not received much help from the referee. And his Villa career can’t get any worse.
Four down at half-time there wasn’t much to say, or that could be done about it. Unai couldn’t make much of a change in midfield because we were one short in that department and couldn’t make any changes up front because we didn’t have a front in the first place (more about that later).
The anti-climactic second half fizzled out with little drama. Brighton didn’t need to do anything else while Villa’s shell-shocked players seemed glad to get off the pitch without further calamity. It’s starting to become a tradition that the season begins poorly and while I’m all for football remaining traditional, this is one I could happily see the back of.
After the match the boss was asked about the personnel changes and in particular the absence of Ollie Watkins. Rarely has silence spoken so many volumes. Watkins has proved to be a great signing, one of our best modern-day goalscorers and a player who has never hidden or made excuses when things were going wrong. He should be held up as a latter-day legend.
Since Unai arrived there’s always seemed a bond, a sense of loyalty that recognises the players appreciate how owners and manager have created a situation whereby they could achieve their ambitions and have more success than they could have otherwise dreamt of.
As it transpired, some of them had so much loyalty that they left at the first opportunity and when Ollie Watkins was asked to play what might be his final game for the Villa, he made himself ‘unavailable’.
