{"id":747750,"date":"2026-08-24T02:26:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T02:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/747750\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T02:26:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T02:26:11","slug":"brighton-hammer-aston-villa-and-joao-gomes-red-adds-to-unai-emerys-pain-premier-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/747750\/","title":{"rendered":"Brighton hammer Aston Villa and Jo\u00e3o Gomes red adds to Unai Emery\u2019s pain | Premier League"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is important to say that Aston Villa were not the only team here to have lost key players over the summer; to play under the threat of further departures; to be without others because of injury. It has been a testing time for the Brighton manager, Fabian H\u00fcrzeler, who has said goodbye to Danny Welbeck<\/a>, Jan Paul van Hecke and James Milner, among others.<\/p>\n

H\u00fcrzeler was without Carlos Baleba and Yankuba Minteh, officially because of injuries although their proposed moves to Manchester United and Liverpool, respectively, were surely a part of things. Kaoru Mitoma was out with a more cut-and-dried fitness matter.<\/p>\n

Villa\u2019s problems have been similar, if a little better documented. The sales of Ezri Konsa<\/a>, Morgan Rogers, Lucas Digne and Youri Tielemans. The continuing uncertainty over Ollie Watkins<\/a>, who is the subject of interest from Al-Hilal<\/a> and seemingly ready to leave. He was not a part of the match-day squad and with Brian Madjo and Tammy Abraham injured, Unai Emery had no available centre-forward; he pressed Emiliano Buend\u00eda into emergency service in the position. Emiliano Mart\u00ednez is also set to leave. The marquee signing, Johan Manzambi, is still not fit.<\/p>\n

Only one club dealt with their problems. It was a red-letter day for Brighton, who began the season with a statement of intent; plenty of hard running and some ruthless finishing, too. Jack Hinshelwood led the way during a first-half onslaught, scoring twice while Maxim De Cuyper got one and put another in off the defender Victor Lindel\u00f6f.<\/p>\n

It was a humbling for Villa. Their supporters wanted to remind everybody at kick-off time of how they had won the Europa League<\/a> in May. They were left stunned by what followed \u2013 the four concessions before the interval and the knowledge that the damage could have been much worse. Their one piece of luck was that Brighton did not turn the screw in the second half. H\u00fcrzeler\u2019s men had done enough.<\/p>\n

The symbol of Villa\u2019s wretchedness was the new signing Jo\u00e3o Gomes, who was passed fit after an injury concern but proceeded to get himself sent off for violent conduct in the 40th minute at 4-0. The debutant aimed a high boot at the Brighton striker Georginio Rutter. Gomes might have been dismissed before that. He was horribly off the pace. Then again, he was not alone in Villa colours.<\/p>\n

When it was all over, the Brighton celebrations exploded around the Amex Stadium, Emery beat a hasty retreat. There was no handshake for H\u00fcrzeler, only worry lines across his brow. There is so much for him to ponder.<\/p>\n

Maxim De Cuyper seizes on a defensive error to score Brighton\u2019s second goal as Aston Villa crumbled in the opening period. Photograph: Alex Pantling\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Brighton\u2019s start was the stuff of dreams, De Cuyper forcing the own goal out of Lindel\u00f6f, Villa\u2019s defence in disarray, and it is fair to say that it set a tone. Brighton went from strength to strength; Villa subsided. The jitteriness was everywhere. They fought a losing battle to control their discipline.<\/p>\n

H\u00fcrzeler named three centre-halves in his lineup but there was no surprise switch to a back five. Rather he started with Olivier Boscagli at left-back, which allowed De Cuyper to play further up the left flank. It was one of the many decisions that paid off handsomely for H\u00fcrzeler.<\/p>\n

Brighton got away with a bit of defensive looseness in the fifth minute, Yasin Ayari robbed by Ross Barkley and Buend\u00eda trickling a low shot past the far post. He was well placed with only Bart Verbruggen to beat. When Villa made their first error, they were not so fortunate. It was the prompt for them to fall apart.<\/p>\n

It was just a dreadful attempted back-pass by Pau Torres for the goalkeeper Marco Bizot. The centre-half could not have seen De Cuyper, who turned smartly to throw off Bizot and open up the shot at the empty net. When the ball came back off the post, it hit the covering Lindel\u00f6f and went in.<\/p>\n

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Brighton wanted it more. They dominated the duels, winning tackle after tackle. The most obvious example during a first half that pounded like a migraine for Villa came on the goal for 4-0, Ayari robbing Gomes on the edge of the Villa area to tee up Hinshelwood for a straightforward finish. Gomes beat the ground in fury. He wanted a foul. It was not there. His afternoon was about to go from very bad to impossibly terrible.<\/p>\n

Gomes was booked on nine minutes for demanding a yellow card for Pascal Gross, who had fouled him. He was spared a second caution for a foul on Ayari in the 14th minute, which led to a flare-up between the benches. His dismissal \u2013 after a video assistant referee review \u2013 was a straight red for kicking up and out at Rutter after the Brighton striker had dispossessed him. Rutter was a rampaging presence. All around him Villa shrank.<\/p>\n

Unai Emery consoles Jo\u00e3o Gomes after he was sent off just before the break at Brighton. Photograph: Glyn Kirk\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

De Cuyper scored for 2-0 after Rutter had sprinted around Torres to cross low \u2013 Boscagli sparked the move with a precision long ball \u2013 while Brighton\u2019s third showcased their slickness. Luka Vuskovic pinged a lovely diagonal out to De Cuyper, who crossed deep where Diego G\u00f3mez headed square for Hinshelwood to nod home. Brighton could have had more by the interval. De Cuyper twice went close. Rutter and G\u00f3mez worked Bizot. Emery looked to have had the air sucked out of him.<\/p>\n

H\u00fcrzeler watched his new signing Costinha hit the post with his first touch in a Brighton shirt after coming off the bench; another replacement, Charalampos Kostoulas, put the rebound into the net only to be flagged offside. Ibrahim Osman, who also came on as a substitute, might have had a penalty after a John McGinn body check and it was notable that Emery did not make any changes until the 74th minute. A message to the Villa board? He could not get out of the Amex fast enough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is important to say that Aston Villa were not the only team here to have lost key…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":747751,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-747750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=747750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/747751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=747750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=747750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=747750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}