Brighton slip punished by Grealish’s touch of class
Brighton threw away two points in a vital relegation battle by committing the cardinal footballing sin of leaving the opposition’s best player unmarked in front of goal.
Leading through Leandro Trossard’s first-half goal, they allowed Aston Villa captain Jack Grealish too much time to control a cross-field pass and smack home the equaliser in the 75th minute.
In truth, neither team deserved to win a poor game, but Brighton will be kicking themselves after failing such an elementary test of defending.
“We made a positional error and Jack Grealish punished us,” Brighton head coach Graham Potter said. “With some players you can get away with it, but not Grealish.”
Villa fought their way into the game and edged the second half.
“I thought it was a good point and a deserved point,” Villa head coach Dean Smith said. “It was a game of two halves. We weren’t aggressive enough in the first half. In the second half, we made the pressure tell. It was a great ball into Jack and a great finish. I’m running out of superlatives for him.”
Early pressing by Brighton faded and they sank back into deep positions, making life far more comfortable for a nervous-looking Villa.
Even so, the visitors made little impression until the 38th minute, when Grealish broke away in midfield and zipped past Dale Stephens only to shoot past the far post. Seconds later, Neal Maupay ran at the Villa defence before his pass found Trossard, who drove his shot just inside Pepe Reina’s post.
It was the game’s first shot on target and there were few others until the 75th minute, when Aaron Mooy was caught out on the touchline, allowing substitute Douglas Luiz to cross for Grealish, inexplicably unmarked, to collect and fire past Mathew Ryan.
Reina needed to be at his best to claw away a volleyed effort from Maupay to keep the scores level.
The game almost ended in a brawl, with Maupay having to be separated from former Brentford team-mate Ezri Konsa.