The Media Review: Aston Villa

When results are not going your way, any sort of distraction is welcome, and there were plenty of those around Albion’s 2-0 home defeat by Aston Villa. 

Instead of a second successive home defeat for Graham Potter’s men, reporters in the Amex press box had a choice of lines on which to base their intros: the nine yellow cards handed out, the message of support from Villa scorer Matty Cash for a Poland teammate who plays for Dynamo Kyiv, and the late arrival of the visitors’ team coach. Don’t they have traffic in the West Midlands?

Most went with Cash’s message and his booking for revealing it. The Mirror website explained: “Matty Cash celebrated his opening goal by removing his shirt to display a message of support for Polish teammate Tomasz Kedziora who is stuck in Ukraine.

“Kedziora plays for Dynamo Kiev in Ukraine's capital, where Russian troops are currently targeting with artillery fire as well as air and missile attacks.

“The Villa full-back had written on his undershirt: "Tomasz Kedziora and family - stay strong bro".

“Despite Cash's heartwarming gesture, as per the rules he was not afforded a reprieve by referee John Brooks, who promptly brandished a yellow card.”

John Aizlewood of the Sunday Telegraph also led on the Cash message, but he later neatly combined the other two threads, writing: “Marooned in Sussex gridlock, Villa arrived at the Amex so late that kick-off was delayed for half an hour. After 90 tempestuous minutes where referee John Brooks, taking charge of only his third Premier League game, showed nine yellow cards, out of sorts Brighton probably wished Villa hadn’t made it at all.

“Still without Adam Webster – and Brighton have won only one of the 11 league games he has missed – Brighton manager Graham Potter changed both personnel and formation, making three changes and switching to a theoretically expansive 3-5-1-1, all to no avail. They have now suffered three consecutive defeats without scoring a goal.

“’The big moments didn’t go for us today,’ sighed Potter. ‘I’m disappointed in the result, but not the performance. The reality is that we can’t create chance after chance and we can’t score goal after goal’.”

“Brighton were eager to make up for lost time and soon only Cash’s hare-like tracking back foiled Solly March as Emiliano Martinez dithered on his line. Cash’s next contribution was more significant still. In the 17th minute, Villa attacked for the first time. Lucas Digne crossed deep. Alexis Mac Allister’s weak clearing header fell to Cash, who rifled home his first goal.”

In the Mail on Sunday, Kieran Gill took up the tale, noting the flurry of bookings after reporting that “Brighton could have equalised after the restart when Maupay set up Alexis Mac Allister. With all of the goal to hit, he struck the crossbar and it flew into the away end. 

“There were cheeky challenges flying in, with the referee not in control of the game. Brooks, new to the Premier League’s list of referees, needed to calm down the players.

“When Watkins caught Marc Cucurella in the face, Brighton were furious. Brooks showed him a yellow, and also gave one to Mings after he sprinted the length of the pitch to mock Cucurella for rolling around.

“At the start of the second half, Villa would have made it 2-0 were it not for Sanchez’s right hand. Phillipe Coutinho’s free kick was struck sweetly and heading into the bottom corner, until the Brighton goalkeeper got there at the final moment.

“Brooks still didn’t have control of proceedings as Joel Veltman became the eighth player to be booked for a naughty challenge on Coutinho on the hour mark.

“In the 68th minute, a ball lumped long by Mings caught the Brighton defence sleeping. It flew over Veltman’s head and sent Watkins through as he beat Sanchez to make it 2-0.

“Yellow card No 9 came along when Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez took part in some time-wasting as the visitors closed in on their first win since January.”

Tom Barclay also enjoyed the cardfest in the Sun on Sunday but had some harsh words for Albion’s defending as Villa scored their second goal. 

“Villa looked fully focused on ending a poor run of one win in seven games - and then went and did it,” he wrote. “Their task was helped by Brighton being below their best at home for the second week running, following on from last week’s 3-0 home defeat to Burnley.

“The game itself was short on quality but full of feistiness, with rookie ref John Brooks booking no fewer than NINE players.

“Douglas Luiz and Leandro Trossard both went into the book for getting into a shoving match.

“While Watkins was cautioned for sending Marc Cucurella crashing to the turf, as was Villa captain Tyrone Mings for suggesting the curly-haired Spaniard was making a meal out of it.

“Villa did finally add to their tally on 68 minutes and it was a shocker of a goal to concede from Potter’s perspective.

“Mings pumped a long ball up the pitch which completely caught out Joel Veltman, allowing Watkins to race in and slot past Sanchez for his sixth of the season.”

In the Sunday Times, Ian Winrow reminded us that “this loss came seven days after their humiliating home defeat by Burnley and underlined their struggles at the Amex Stadium, where they have failed to win since Boxing Day. Mac Allister hitting the bar shortly after Cash’s goal proved to be the closest they came to levelling.”

On the BBC Sport website wrote that “Matty Cash opened the scoring for the visitors in the first half, driving in from the edge of the box after Lucas Digne's cross had been half cleared.

“Brighton had been the better side until then but were unable to capitalise on some poor Aston Villa defending.

“Substitute Danny Welbeck headed wide when unmarked late on but the hosts never really looked like staging a dramatic fight back.

“The win means Aston Villa move up to 12th, three points behind 10th-place Brighton.

“After back-to-back defeats it was a win that Villa will hope gets their season back on track but for Brighton it was another disappointing outcome on home soil.

“The Seagulls have impressed many with their brand of football, but too often good performances have not been backed up with results.

“It is now just one victory in their last 10 games at home and finding ways to win more often in front of their own fans is something they need to resolve if they are to establish themselves in the top half of the table.”