Key events
Roberto De Zerbi speaks. He says playing without important players, especially the full-backs, changes something in build-up and “the last 40 metres”, hence the lack of goals and no wins in six. He respects Villa but they want to keep the ball, play football, and take a lot of shots.
So where do Villa – potentially fortified with Champions League money – need to strengthen this summer? A deputy for Ollie Watkins, perhaps, a right-back, and central-midfield competition for Douglas Luii, John McGinn and Youri Tielemans? Real talk, they’re pretty well covered, and I think they can do something in Big Ears next season.
Also going on:
Earlier this season:
Villa, of course, lost 4-2 at home to Olympiakos in midweek. It might take them a while to run out of their legs what was a tense and demanding match, and also on their collective mind will be Thursday’s return. They’ll hope to have Martínez, at least, back for that, especially given the prospect of penalties.
Martínez is a massive miss for Villa. Whatever you think about his performative attitude, he makes crucial saves and few mistakes; Arsenal let him go, but arguably he’s better than both Aaron Ramsdale and David Raya. Brighton will want to test Olsen early and keep him under pressure thereafter, if they possibly can.
As for Villa, Emi Martínez remains injured, Robin Olsen replacing him, while in front, Pau Torres and Diego Carlos replace Matty Cash and Clement Lenglet.
Three changes for Brighton. At the back, Adam Webster and Joel Veltman are replaced by Odeluga Offiah and Valentin Baroco, while up front it’s Daniel Welbeck ahead of Mark O’Mahony.
Let’s have some teams…
Brighton (4-2-3-1): Verbruggen; Webster, Dunk, Igor, Veltman; Gilmour, Gross; Adingra, Pedro, Buonanotte; Welbeck. Subs: Steele, Enciso, Moder, Barco, Baleba, Fati, Offiah, Peupion, O’Mahony.
Aston Villa (4-4-2): Olsen; Konsa, Torres, Carlos, Digne; Bailey, Luiz, Rogers, McGinn; Diaby, Watkins. Subs: Gauci, Cash, Moreno, Chambers, Lenglet, Duran, Kesler-Hayden, Iroegbunam, Kellyman.
Preamble
It’s hard not to look at this match and ponder the managers. Little over a year ago, Roberto De Zerbi was the coming man, arriving to an already decent side and immediately turning it into more, the goals that seemed so hard to find under Graham Potter suddenly arriving more freely, along with some lovely football.
That was then; now, though, not so much. Perhaps Brighton finally fleeced richer rivals to such extent they could no longer simply rebuild and perhaps they didn’t have the squad toi cope with Europe, but also, perhaps opponents have caught on to their press-baiting style, which can be just as tedious to watch as it can be a buzz. So they find themselves 13th in the table – last term they finished sixth – and suddenly De Zerbi is as close to bald fraud as to epochal genius.
Unai Emery, on the other hand, is now utterly ensconced among the elite managers. His travails at PSG and particularly Arsenal, though reasonably attributable to messy circumstances beyond his control, might also be used as evidence he is unsuited to the richest clubs. But at taking mid-ranking clubs to glory seemingly beyond them, he is the best around, and Villa look like another perfect fit.
As such, they need just six points from their final three games to be certain of competing in next season’s Champions League, but with Palace away and Liverpool home to come, those will not be easily achieved. They’ll want to put a dent in things here and now.
Kick-off: 2pm BST
