View: Aston Villa master the dark arts in 2-1 victory over Brighton
Every single week, the biggest threat to Aston Villa is Aston Villa.
From throwing a two-goal lead with 20 minutes to play against Wolves last season to gifting Alexis Mac Allister his opening goal after 45 seconds on Sunday 13 November, Villa fans have become used to supporting a side with a soft underbelly.
However, after that moment of sloppy play from Douglas Luiz within the opening minute on Sunday, Unai Emery installed some calm and got his side playing with a mean-streak fans have not witnessed in quite some time.
To Emery, it didn’t matter how his side claimed their first away win of the season, winning ugly was fine with the Spaniard. The three points that were claimed catapulted Villa onto the verge of the top ten, a sight which seemed a long way away under Steven Gerrard, and he will look to build on this when the Premier League returns.
Throughout the game, Villa set up in the 4-2-2-2 formation that Emery has installed since his arrival, playing a narrow midfield and blocking any route through for an in-form Brighton attack.
Once Villa had overturned the initial deficit and Danny Ings had netted his second of the match – his fourth goal in four league starts – Emery decided to shut up shop and park the bus. It might not have been pretty but it was certainly effective.
On came Ludwig Augustinsson and Ashley Young for Danny Ings and Jacob Ramsey, with Emery shifting his side into a flat-back six with a midfield four in front of them. Lucas Digne and Matty Cash dropped alongside the two centre-halves, with Young and McGinn adding extra cover on the two defensive flanks.
Brighton would go on to have 73% of possession in the second half but only one real chance of note, when Levi Colwill spooned his header over the bar when unmarked in the Villa six-yard box, but for large periods they were held at bay with relative ease.
Emery had an obvious game plan to break up play as much as possible as his player committed niggling fouls, pulled up with cramp and played to the corner with 15 minutes remaining in what can only be described as a Diego Simeone-style approach to the dying moments of the match.
The Villans went on to pick up six yellow cards in a scrappy final 20 minutes, with McGinn and Emi Martinez picking up cautions for time wasting in stoppage time.
What was more telling was the reaction of the players after the full-time whistle. The back four gathered in a highly animated huddle on the halfway line, while player after player screamed their delight as they walked back down the tunnel at the AMEX Stadium.
Emi Martinez summed up Villa’s attitude on the south coast quite brilliantly.
“We went to war,” he said. And they came back with three huge points.
In other news, Aston Villa slammed by Roberto De Zerbi after 2-1 win v Brighton.