Aston Villa 6 Brighton and Hove Albion 1
Albion were tonked by Aston Villa at Villa Park – the Seagulls joint record loss in the Premier League.
The Seagulls looked woefully light in midfield and central defender Adam Webster had a nightmare performance and may yet have two own goals attributed to him.
Pervis Estupinan had a definite own goal as he inadvertently steered in Villa’s third after Ollie Watkins had scored the first two for Villa.
VAR was unkind and two of the goals should quite possibly have been disallowed.
Substitute Ansu Fati scored his first Albion goal to reduce the arrears to 3-1 and for a while Albion were back on top.
A hat-trick strike from Watkins, another from Jacob Ramsey and an injury time sixth from Douglas Luiz sent Villa above Albion into third.
Lewis Dunk, Danny Welbeck, Kaoru Mitoma and Fati all picked up yellow cards. Villa also picked up four bookings.
In terms of possession, Albion may have dominated but it was Villa who made it count.
The Seagulls must now regroup for the away Europa League fixture at Marseilles on Thursday (5 October) followed by Liverpool at the Amex next Sunday (8 October) in the Premier League.
