[Albion] Aston Villa vs Brighton & Hove Albion *** Official Match Thread ***

[Dick Head]

Aston Villa v Albion

PREMIER LEAGUE

Venue: Villa Park
Date: Sunday 28th May 2023
Kick-off: 16:30 BST
Referee: David Coote
Assistants: Simon Bennett, Timothy Wood
Fourth Official: Andy Davies
VAR: Graham Scott
Additional VAR: Lee Betts
​

TEAM NEWS

Aston Villa's Alex Moreno will require up to three months of rehabilitation following hamstring surgery.

Fellow defenders Diego Carlos and Calum Chambers are available after injury and illness respectively but Philippe Coutinho still isn't fit.

Lewis Dunk could return for Brighton after being rested on Wednesday because of a back issue.

Albion remain without the injured Adam Lallana, Jakub Moder, Jeremy Sarmiento, Solly March and Tariq Lamptey.

MATCH FACTS

Head-to-head

• Brighton & Hove Albion's only competitive victory over Villa in the past 15 attempts came away in the Premier League in November 2020.
• Aston Villa are vying to beat the Seagulls in four successive league meetings for the first time.

Aston Villa

• Villa will secure a place in the Europa Conference League play-off round - their first continental competition for 13 years - if they win. A draw would be enough if both Tottenham and Brentford fail to win, as would a defeat should Spurs lose and Brentford fail to win.
• They can equal the club Premier League record of seven consecutive home victories, set from December 1992 to February 1993.
• An 18th Premier League win of the season would also equal their best in a 38-match season, set in 1995-96.
• However, Aston Villa have won their final fixture in just one of their past eight Premier League campaigns, beating Chelsea 2-1 in 2020-21 (D2, L5).
• Ollie Watkins has gone six appearances without a goal, having previously scored 11 in 12. He needs one goal to become the first Villa player to reach 15 in a top-flight season since Christian Benteke a decade ago.
• Ezri Konsa and Emiliano Buendia have played in all 37 of Aston Villa's Premier League games this season.

Albion

• Brighton are guaranteed to finish as high as sixth for the first time in the top flight.
• Only Arsenal and Manchester City can better Albion's tally of eight Premier League away wins this season.
• They have scored 34 top-flight away goals in 2022-23, second only to Arsenal. Brighton's current 13-match scoring league streak on the road is their longest since a run of 16 between August 2009 and February 2010 in League One.
• The Seagulls have only earned one point from their seven games this season against the teams currently seventh to 10th in the table.
• Brighton players are responsible for 11 of the 20 Premier League goals scored by teenagers this season.
• Pascal Gross is level alongside Glenn Murray and Neal Maupay as Brighton's 26-goal all-time Premier League top scorer.
• Danny Welbeck has scored in each of his last three Premier League appearances at Villa Park, for three different clubs: Manchester United, Arsenal and Brighton.

Roberto De Zerbi's Aston Villa Press Conference

 

[Mortdecai]

 

[sydney]

i think villa still need a win to keep spuds out of europe so this is gonna be tough but we always do what's not expected , gonna be knackered at work tomorrow.

 

[Foul Play Rocks]

Wheel win!

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

This last game could be season defining

 

[Greg Bobkin]

Come on lads, no messing around - through to the next round

 

[HastingsSeagull]

Convinced they’re a bogey team for us. Would really like us to go out and get a statement win by a couple goals. Ferguson needs to play a part.

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

Let’s ruin the party, we owe them one

 

[Dirty Dave]

What colours we playing in today?

 

[BN41Albion]

• Brighton & Hove Albion's only competitive victory over Villa in the past 15 attempts came away in the Premier League in November 2020.
• Aston Villa are vying to beat the Seagulls in four successive league meetings for the first time.

Very glad we're not going there in a showdown for 7th as many predicted a few weeks ago!!

 

[Ooh it’s a corner]

My Albion scarf is getting a few glances in Dub airport this morning - already seen about a dozen Villa fans - I know we finish 6th whatever but we really DO owe them one - UTA

Edit - it’s actually like a chartered flight for the AV Supporters Club!

 

[deletebeepbeepbeep]

Hopefully we stuff them!! Let's make our highest points total even higher!

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

What a footballing day in prospect, and not just for the Albion. Marvellous. At least one twatty, entitled club will be going down, hopefully two.

 

[moggy]

Would love to stop this cheating team getting into Europe

 

[Icy Gull]

No shithousing, just take them apart please

 

[Beach Hut]

So excited

 

[Official Old Man]

And so we shortly turn off the light on what has been the greatest ever football season in the history of Brighton and Hove Albion. History will show that season 22/23 was the season that we became a Big 6 team. Scared of no other team, we went to Arsenal and thrashed them, 6 points off Man Utd and Chelsea, thrashed Liverpool then done it again two weeks later. Fans of the future will look back on this season as either the start of something big or our only big season.

And we were there.
And to celebrate I'm off to a dry football ground with a rip-off pub outside for away fans.

 

[FloatLeft]

A win to keep villa out of Europe please! And to avenge the final game of our promotion winning season.

 

[Dick Head]

So excited

were loose

 

[Lenny Rider]

For older fans is it a bit like the Beatles playing on top of the Apple building?

Will we ever be this good again?

Is losing Mac and Caciedo like McCartney leaving the Fab Four?

I’m old enough and ugly enough to acknowledge that players come and go, as do managers, so it’s all part of the Albion evolution, just so long we don’t end up with The Frog Chorus things will just move on as they always have.

Like the rest of us I trust RDZ and the recruitment team to do their best and actually improve the squad.


Personally Id like to see Pascal surpass both Glenn and Maupay’s EPL goal tally and keep the record safe until Ferguson takes it over within the next 18/24 months.