There is something about Unai Emery and thrilling comebacks. The Aston Villa manager believes he became a better coach after witnessing his Paris Saint-Germain side surrender a three-goal advantage against Barcelona in 2017 in the Champions League game that became known as La Remontada. This time it was the Spaniard who had the last laugh as Villa hit back with two goals for Ollie Watkins on his recall to the side before Amadou Onana and Donyell Malen condemned Brighton to their first home defeat of the season.
Fabian Hürzeler had talked up his side’s chances of challenging for the top four after three wins in their previous four matches. But having raced into a two-goal lead thanks to Jan Paul van Hecke’s controversial opener and an own goal from Pau Torres, his side showed they remain naive at the back despite Lewis Dunk making his 500th appearance for the club. Hürzeler was still a youth player at Bayern Munich when his captain made his first, in League One against Port Vale in 2010, and the German is still searching for consistency after a promising start to the season.
“The goals we conceded were out of nowhere. The small margins cost us,” said the disappointed Brighton manager.
The same cannot be said for the effervescent Emery, who was in despair when his side found themselves 2-0 down but jumped for joy when the substitute Malen scrambled home the fourth goal. Villa have won their last six matches in all competitions – including four in the Premier League – and look genuine contenders to qualify for the Champions League again, having moved up to third.
Emery’s best-laid plans suffered a major blow when for the second time this season the goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez was injured in a warm-up. His replacement, Marco Bizot, did not have the most auspicious start when he conceded from a corner after nine minutes. But the Dutchman was Villa’s hero in injury time when he saved from Danny Welbeck after Van Hecke had briefly stirred hopes of a Brighton comeback with his second of the night.
“We are showing resilience in every match,” said Emery, whose side face the league leaders, Arsenal, on Saturday. “How we reacted is like the season. We started poor but we are adding experiences and today was one more.”
Van Hecke had made the most of his compatriot’s blunder to open the scoring when Bizot completely misjudged the flight of a corner and Van Hecke was eventually able to bundle the ball home.
Emery’s mood was not improved when replays showed that the corner should never have been given in the first place, the ball having deflected off Brighton’s Stefanos Tzimas. Fifa announced plans this week for video assistant referees to intervene in the awarding of corners at next year’s World Cup, although there are no such plans to introduce this into domestic leagues.
Villa’s recent run of victories has been largely built on defensive solidity. Yet they looked extremely vulnerable whenever Brighton poured forward in the first half an hour.
Even a long delay when Tzimas was carried off after catching his knee in the turf could not halt their momentum and the hosts had another lucky break when a cross from his replacement, Jack Hinshelwood, deflected off Torres to double their lead.
At that stage Emery looked as though he might explode. Having been denied a penalty for Carlos Baleba’s challenge on Ian Maatsen, Villa were handed a lifeline when Watkins was able to pull one back through sheer determination as he converted the Dutchman’s cross.
Suddenly the tide had turned. A header from Dunk came off his own post after a corner and Villa were level in the seventh minute of first-half injury time when Watkins slotted home a brilliant long ball from Morgan Rogers for only his third league goal of the season.
“He is gaining in confidence and hopefully the numbers will start to improve,” added Emery, who celebrated by hurling his coat towards his own bench.
Villa picked up where they left off after the break and took the lead from a similar corner routine to Van Hecke’s opener, although this time Mats Wieffer was at fault for failing even to challenge Kamara when he headed in at the far post.
That was the prompt for Welbeck to be summoned from the bench. But having already seen Watkins – one of his rivals for a place in England’s World Cup squad – steal a march on him, the veteran could only watch in disbelief when he diverted a wayward shot goalwards and Bizot leapt to tip it over the crossbar.
