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After the deluge, a draw that gives Aston Villa hope that the tide is turning in their season. Dean Smith’s side came into this game on the back of a 6-1 defeat by Manchester City and could have gone under again after Leandro Trossard fired Brighton into the lead. Instead they rallied and earned an equaliser thanks to a wonderful goal by Jack Grealish.
A typically excellent strike from their talisman was only one of the aspects of this game from which Villa could take encouragement, with others being their combativeness, a terrific late save from their new goalkeeper, Pepe Reina, and the fact that the draw was achieved without a recognised striker. That vacancy will soon be filled, as the Tanzanian forward Mbwana Samatta has passed a medical as the club puts the finishing touches to his £8.5m transfer from Genk. “The paperwork is being ticked off,” said Smith.
Brighton, meanwhile, were left to reflect on another match in which they were superior in spells but failed to profit. They remain just three points ahead of Villa and at risk of replacing them in the relegation zone if they do not find a way of translating periods of promising play into regular rewards. “You can’t just win by playing well, you have to be able to suffer,” said Graham Potter.
Brighton had the advantage of being able to field a balanced lineup here. Villa, by contrast, had to start without a specialist striker for the third match in a row, with Anwar El Ghazi again asked to do his best impersonation of a natural striker. He is game but plainly no predator.
Villa have had problems at the other end, too, but Reina helped bring solidity to a backline that was blown apart by City last Sunday. The 37-year-old former Liverpool player was put straight into the starting lineup here for his first game since October, when he made his solitary outing for his parent club, Milan, and his first Premier League appearance since he kept a clean sheet for Liverpool, against Queens Park Rangers in May 2013.
For a while Reina may have fancied his chances of marking his Villa debut with a clean sheet. He had little to do in the opening minutes, other than dash off his line to punch the ball clear as Aaron Connolly tried to make the most of a cross from Trossard.
Smith had demanded more aggression from his team after being angered by their timidity against City, when Villa committed five fouls. They equalled that tally in the first half-hour here, with Danny Drinkwater earning a booking as early as the 14th minute for crunching into Neal Maupay.
Brighton still had the majority of possession but there was a regrettable lack of quality from both sides in an opening half-hour that brought to mind a tug-of-war between two earnest oafs of equal weight. Villa created the first really clear chance thanks to a hopeful pass forward from the back in the 37th minute. Grealish latched on to it and held off two defenders as he made his way into the box. But he then shot wide from 16 yards.
One minute later, as if to compound the pain of that miss, Trossard showed him how it should have been done. Maupay drove from midfield before reaching the edge of the D and slipping the ball to Trossard, who lashed the ball across Reina and into the far corner.
Villa have had the tendency to disintegrate after conceding this season but here they rebelled. But they did not look like equalising until Smith made a double substitution in the 67th minute. He introduced the 18-year-old American striker Indiana Vassilev for his first Premier League appearance and replaced Drinkwater with Douglas Luiz.
The switch soon paid off with the help of negligent defending. When Douglas Luiz angled a fine pass into the box from the right touchline, Grealish was somehow free to collect it. This time the finish was glorious, as he thrashed a left-footed shot past Mat Ryan from 16 yards. The goal gave Villa an adrenaline rush. But Brighton would have snatched a late winner through Maupay if not for a plunging one-handed save by Reina.
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