Match Preview: Brighton v Aston Villa
After a trip to Bristol Rovers in the second round of the Camila Cabello Cup and the chance to relive the fun that came with following Brighton away in League One, the third round has thrown up a far less interesting tie for the Albion.
Fellow Premier Division side Aston Villa will be the visitors to the Amex which, given some of those left in the hat, is a huge disappointment.
A Sussex derby with Crawley Town could have been on the cards. A trip along the south coast to face Portsmouth for the first time since 2012. Oxford United away for a student night out afterwards.
Christ, even a meeting with Swansea City would have been intriguing, pitting Graham Potter against his former club who are currently flying at the top of the Championship.
Instead, it’s Dean Smith and Villa – a side we’ll face in three-and-a-half weeks time in the Premier League. Meh.
A brief history of Aston Villa
Historically, Aston Villa are one of the biggest clubs in the land. Founded in 1874, they have been champions of England on seven occasions, lifted seven FA Cups and are one of only five English clubs to have won the European Cup, beating the mighty Bayern Munich in Rotterdam in 1982.
It hasn’t been all glory though. Villa spent time in the third tier in the early 1970s and were relegated from the Premier League in 2016 after many years of under investment and some pretty strange managerial appointments. We’re looking at you, Tim Sherwood.
In terms of the League Cup, Villa are one of the most successful teams in the history of the competition having won it five times. They were the first victors, beating the not-so-mighty Rotherham United in the final in 1961 with their last success coming in 1996, which also happens to be their last major trophy.
Aston Villa this season
Villa won promotion out of the Championship via the play offs last year having taken the shrewd decision to appoint Dean Smith as manager a few months into the campaign. While a club of their stature could have undoubtedly gone for a bigger, more glamorous name they got in an impressive boss who’d worked his way up though the divisions with Walsall and Brentford and that paid dividends.
Smith wasn’t working with the best squad last season – which says much about his management skills – and it looked even weaker ahead of their top flight return with Tammy Abraham going back to Chelsea. As a result, they’ve taken the Fulham approach and chucked as much money as is humanly possible at a whole host of signings. So far, that’s yielded just one win, when Everton were beaten 2-0 at Villa Park.
They’ve pushed some of the other leading contenders close, taking a 2-0 lead against Arsenal at the weekend only to lose 3-2 and holding high-flying West Ham United to a 0-0 draw. Villa advanced to this stage of the competition by hammering Crewe Alexandra 6-1 in the last round.
Head-to-head
There have been 22 meetings between Brighton and Aston Villa with the Albion only winning four. Three of those have been hugely impressive results though. The first saw the Albion lift the Charity Shield in 1910 in the days when the winners of that particularly trophy were proclaimed the champions of England. Charlie Webb got the only goal in a 1-0 success at Stamford Bridge.
The second came in the 1971-72 season as a crowd of 28,883 and the Match of the Day cameras came to the Goldstone to witness Brighton beat Division Three’s table topping Villa 2-1. Villa lifted the title come the end of the season with the Albion being promoted as runners up.
The third took place in the 1980-81 season, the last time Villa won the league. Michael Robinson got the only goal in a 1-0 victory for Alan Mullery’s Seagulls.
Other than that, there have been seven draws and 11 wins for Villa. Brighton also average less than a goal per game in the fixture, having scored just 22 times.
Brighton’s head-to-head record with Aston Villa
Last six meetings
• Aston Villa 1-1 Brighton (Championship, 07/05/17)
• Brighton 1-1 Aston Villa (Championship, 18/11/16)
• Aston Villa 3-2 Brighton (FA Cup Fourth Round, 23/01/10)
• Brighton 0-0 Aston Villa (Division One, 26/03/83)
• Aston Villa 1-0 Brighton (Division One, 13/11/82)
• Aston Villa 3-0 Brighton (Division One, 12/04/82)
Given that dire head-to-head record, it will come as little surprise to see that we haven’t beaten Villa since that 1-0 victory over the future English champions in 1980, eight games ago. Glenn Murray has enjoyed his recent clashes with them, scoring in both fixtures in the 2016-17 season. Shame he’s injured for this one.
Team news
Murray isn’t the only player ruled out, either. Neal Maupay, Solly March and Alireza Jahanbakhsh are also crocked, although it’s unlikely the first two would have been involved anyway. That leaves the Albion looking extremely light up front with Aaron Connolly the only fit centre forward. If you’re a striker and you turn up to the Amex with your boots, you might get a game.
Steve Alzate will presumably start, but goodness knows who else plays as part of the front three. There aren’t any obvious candidates from the development squad to step up either given that so many of them are currently out on loan. Bojan Radulovic, who scored four goals in eight games for the Under 23s last season after a loan spell with Espanyol B was aborted, could make his debut. There have however been some doubts surrounding his fitness.
Away from the front line, we can probably expect a similar sort of side to that which took to the field against Bristol Rovers with the added bonus of Shane Duffy and Yves Bissouma after they’ve fallen out of favour and returned from injury respectively.
Aston Villa’s key players
Villa made wholesale changes for their thrashing of Crewe in the last round although for reasons that nobody seems to be able to explain, captain Jack Grealish came on for the final 20 minutes with the game already won and eventually added the sixth.
Conor Hourihane scored twice and will provide a threat from midfield while Henri Lansbury also started. He always seemed to play well against us in his Nottingham Forest days, registering two goals. One of those was a last minute equaliser in a 2-2 draw at the City Ground in the 2012-13 season when he took advantage of a Casper Anekrgren howler. Poor Casper no doubt had his mind on other things, namely that he hadn’t had a cigarette or a bottle of Carlsberg for the best part of two hours.
A good WeAreBrighton.com memory of Aston Villa at home
We’ve only played Villa at home once in our lifetime and that was the meeting at the Amex three seasons ago. At the time, the 1-1 draw seemed pretty good given the visitors had just appointed Steve Bruce as manager and were the dominant side that evening.
A bad WeAreBrighton.com memory of Aston Villa at home
Being a Friday night game, we predictably ended up out on West Street afterwards. The destination this time was inexplicably Vodka Revs and it was grim.
Our favourite player to play for Brighton and Aston Villa
Can Gareth Barry count? He never played a first team game for the Albion but he was technically our player before Villa poached him and turned him into a future England international. We’re nominating him anyway if only for John Gregory’s brilliant quote, claiming that Villa shouldn’t have to pay a penny for his services as Dick Knight wouldn’t recognised Barry if he stood on Brighton beach holding a beach ball and with a seagull on his head while wearing an Albion shirt.
What do we like about Aston Villa?
Birmingham is one of the best cities in the country for drinking. Less favourable is the fact that John Terry is Villa’s assistant manager, so watch out anyone who wants to park in a disabled space at the Amex for this one. Or anyone who isn’t white. Or anyone who doesn’t find 9/11 funny.
Prediction
This game effectively comes down to who has the better second string, Brighton or Villa? Given that we’ve been in the Premier League for three seasons now and this is Villa’s first campaign back in the top flight since 2016, you’d have to suspect it is us. A 2-1 win to the Albion with a sneaky tenner going on an Aaron Connolly goal.
