Post Match report for the Aston Villa game - Saturday, 18th January 2020

PREMIER LEAGUE: Brighton v Villa - 18/1/20, P23.

ALBION NOT PROGRESSING AND DROP MORE HOME POINTS


VENUE: the Amex, Falmer - twelfth home match of twenty-three fixtures to date.
RESULT: 1-1 ~ Trossard . (h-t 1-0) . SHAPE: 4-2-2-2 .
REF: questionable decisions in ebb & flow until he blew up for trivial offences anyway.


PRE-KICKOFF: second half of the season was into mid January, with Brighton fans eyes checking socials and other media sources for any movement during the transfer window.
They were again left with an uncomfortable feeling of wait and see.
GATE: 30,551 . WEATHER: calm winter afternoon.

GRAHAM POTTER was not really in a place he wanted to be at this juncture but it was still his job to motivate the squad onto higher things.
At end of the day his decisions off the field would influence what would happen in the very near future.

TEAM . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Ryan
. 46 Alzate, 15 Webster, 5 Dunk, 30 Bernardo
. . . . . . . . . 6 Stephens, 24 Propper
. . . . . . . . . 18 Mooy, 11 Trossard
. . . . . . . . . 7 Maupay, 44 Connolly

BENCH: 27 Button, 22 Montoya (68), 4 Duffy, 8 Bissouma, 16 Jahanbakhsh, 13 Gross (81), 17 Murray (81).


GOALS: 38 - 1-0. A domestic counterstroke, originated in opponents third, was carried forward by Maupay who fed TROSSARD for a cross-shot from left side of the area.
75 - 1-1. Hosts blundered in midfield after pressuring visitors who broke and dummied locals defence. The equaliser was a quality strike.


INCIDENTS: the match was a low skill-grade affair and from what highlights eventually emerged, winding up Seagulls striker appeared part of on field action.
The Amex crowd was lacklustre, especially when away support realised they were on for a point, or possibly extra, if noise output could be translated into goal-scoring chances.

YELLOWS: Dunk was turned and mugged. Webster could not cope. Maupay lost the plot but found handbags.

SUBS: Montoya got on when Connolly went off. Murray & Gross replaced Trossard & Mooy.
Potter initially reshaped to 433 and later 4411. Entry into and therefore stats for the final third, were hardly altered.


SYNOPSIS: going a goal up prior to the interval almost seemed scant reward for a half locals took by measure of some fluid forward motion resulting in half chances to score.
After the break the expected reaction from travellers transpired, while blue & white went off the boil up to and after the hour mark.
There was little cut & thrust, almost to a level of have & hold.
Football often hinges on blunders and/or flashes of skill and both these subsequently occurred sequentially, resulting in visitors levelling.
Huffing, puffing, predictable square passing and variations of Potter ball from other moves & changes played out to the end but not to effect, so nothing much altered.
Consultation of stats revealed a tighter affair than appreciated from real time & motion study as a side view.
MoM - Bernardo, got up & down, ran about and tried his best.

CONSEQUENCES: this was a contest Albion could have taken three points from but reality is they are left merely three points above the drop zone and pressure mounts for a reaction, against fellow strugglers on next Tuesday night, at Bournemouth.

FS