Post Match report for the Aston Villa game - Saturday, 20th November 2021

PREMIER LEAGUE 21/22: Villa V Brighton - 20/11/21, P12.

* * * * * ALBION FACING REALITY OF PREM LIFE * * * * *


RESULT: 2-0 . (h-t 0-0) . . . SHAPE: 3-5-2


VENUE: Villa Park, Birmingham - sixth away match of twelve fixtures to date . Sat 3pm.
PRE-MATCH: the Prem resumed following WC group qualifiers. Brighton fans allocated tickets today headed for and assembled in the midlands from all points of the compass.
Time would tell if Seagulls remained in the centre of things or soon slipped to periphery. It was a wider world to be explored now we had come this far.
WEATHER: mild afternoon . . . KIT: blue & white . . . GATE: 41,925.

GRAHAM POTTER had reached three figures for BHA games played during his tenure. Being philosophical he thought it was but another test on yet another day.
He did however hope to marginally improve WDL percentages by final whistle.
Changes were made to recent line ups. Steele debuted with Sanchez banned, Webster returned and so did Gross & Moder.
INJURY: 12 Mwepu, 17 Alzate, 18 Welbeck . SQUAD: 7 Connolly, 28 Roberts . BAN: 1 Sanchez.


TEAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Steele
. . . . . . . . . . . 4 Webster, 24 Duffy, 5 Dunk
. 2 Lamptey, 13 Gross, 8 Bissouma, 15 Moder, 3 Cucurella
. . . . . . . 11 Moder . . . . . . . 14 Lallana

BENCH: 16 Scherpen, 27 Locadia, 30 Richards, 33 Burn, 34 Veltman, 60 Sarmiento.
20 March (64), 9 Maupay (79), 10 Mac Allister (89).


GOALS: 1-0 - 84 . hosts counterattack and overload but defenders give them every chance to shoot.
2-0 - 89 . visitors fold following a short corner and old problems resurface that haunt from earlier seasons.


INCIDENTS: 5 - visitors corner, 6 - Webster injured, 12 - Steele saves, 21 - Cucurella cross, 27 - Webster treatment, 29 - Steele comes out, 30 - Trossard effort, 40 - visitors block, 45 - hosts double save,
46 - Steele parries, 51 - hosts injury, 54 - Duffy clears, 59 - Lamptey decked, 64 - hosts double block, 65 - hosts pen shout, 78 - Steele punches, 80 - travellers back-pedalling, 90 - Steele saves.

YELLOWS: 48 - Cucurella . 67 - Webster . 90 - Mac Allister.

SUBS: 64 - March for Cucurella . 79 - Maupay for Lamptey . 89 - Mac Allister for Gross.


FIRST HALF: huff & puff presided in stalemate among a general lack of quality before, during and after transition. Travellers gaining majority of possession resulted in much less than maximum dominance.
SECOND HALF: turnaround revealed more as before bar going in the opposite direction.
The home crowd played its part in lifting their outfit.
Potter appeared hamstrung for changes to count without losing momentum but it reduced to a mean level of mediocrity.
Locals were supercharged at the death and took advantage of failings from away opponents.
A no score draw may have been acceptable from not winning or at worst averting defeat.
In the event the fail to score stat stood out as more than just contributory to a flaccid performance up the sharp end.


NUMBERS: poss 37%-63%, on target 5-2, off target 4-4, corners 5-7,
fouls 7-13, yellows 3-3, subs 3-3, shape 433-352 . . . . . . gd-2 pt17 po8

FS


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